LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 
S. 

Class 


THE  ROAD 


The  Ever-Existent,  Universal 
and  Only  Religion 


By  C.  C.  HARRAH 

MINISTER  OF  THE  GOSPEL 


Let  us  stand  together.  —  Isaiah 
All  ye  are  Brethren.—  Jesus 


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C.    C.    HARRAH 


THE  ROAD 

THE 

EVER-EXISTENT,   UNIVERSAL 

AND   ONLY 

RELIGION  OF  GOD 


ITS    PRESENCE     IN    ALL    THE    RELIGIONS    AND 

CIVILIZATIONS   OF    THE    WORLD,   AND   THE 

PRESENT   CRISIS   IN   CHRISTIANITY 


By  CHARLES  CLARK   HARRAH 

MINISTER   OF  THE  GOSPEL 


"  It  is  a  task  by  itself  more  rich  and  comprehensive  than  that  of 
the  historian  of  dogma,  to  portray  the  diverse  conceptions  that  have  been 
formed  of  the  Christian  religion;  to  portray  how  strong  men  and  weak  men, 
great  and  little  minds,  have  explained  the  Gospel  outside  and  inside  the 
frame- work  of  dogma;  and  how,  under  the  cloak,  or  in  the  province  of 
dogma,  the  Gospel  has  had  its  own  peculiar  history.  *  *  Progress  is  finally 
dependent  on  a  true  conception  of  WHAT  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 
ORIGINALLY  WAS." — Professor  Harnack. 

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To  all  who  love  God,  of  all  religions 
or  Christian  cults;  and  to  all  Brother- 
hoods, of  all  who  seek  to  do  good;  and 
to  all  men  who  walk  alone,  of  the 
scattered  Friends  of  mankind,  this  book 
is  dedicated  —  to  point  the  way  to 
universal  Religion  and  a  Brotherhood 
of  all  mankind. 


Copyrighted  1902  by  WILLIAM  FERGUSON  HARRAH 


This  book  was  written  to  do  good,  and  not  as  a  source  of  revenue. 
Publishers  of  periodicals  or  books  who  desire  to  reprint  it,  whole  or  in  part, 
will  be  favored  by  making  known  their  wishes. 


Printed  by  the  J.  E.  CAMPBELL  PRINTING  HOUSE,  Des  Moines 


Nut* 


1.  Forty-four  years  ago,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  I  came  to  feel  that 
life  is  a  serious  matter  and  it  must  be  lived  in  earnest.  There  was  at  that 
time  much  controversy  between  the  sects  of  religion;  the  outcome  of  which 
to  myself  was,  I  became  a  skeptic.  My  parents  were  poor  and  all  worked 
early  and  late,  but  by  keeping  a  book  at  hand  for  use  any  minute,  I  did 
much  valuable  reading.  When  in  my  twenty-first  year  I  saw  the  Road  of 
Jesus,  besides  much  topical  reading  of  the  Bible,  I  had  read  through  the 
Old  Testament  twice  and  the  New  Testament  seven  times.  I  got  what 
seemed  to  me  a  clear  idea  of  Jesus'  religion. 

It  took  ten  years,  in  three  colleges  and  two  theological  seminaries  to 
prepare  for  the  ministry.  I  preached  much  during  that  time;  and  then  contin- 
uously for  thirty  years  at  Brookfield,  Missouri;  Monroe,  Iowa;  Galva,  Illinois; 
Peoria,  Illinois;  Newton,  Iowa;  Des  Moines,  Iowa.  After  attending  the  World's 
Evangelical  Alliance,  in  New  York,  in  1873,  I  announced  to  the  congrega- 
tion in  Brookfield,  that  henceforth  my  efforts  would  be  given  to  unite  the 
religious  sects  and  make  the  church  in  reality  a  Brotherhood.  Every 
church  where  I  have  preached,  has  welcomed  all  disciples  of  Jesus  without 
regard  to  creeds.  I  bear  witness  to  the  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity  in 
these  churches,  where  there  never  was  a  division,  and  good  works  were 
abundant.  The  Year  Books  show  that  no  Congregational  churches  had  a 
more  healthy  growth.  These  many  years  have  given  me  a  much  clearer 
understanding  of  that  first  view  of  the  Gospel,  which  led  me  to  yield  my 
life  to  God.  As  I  came  to  understand  it  better  it  helped  me  more  and  I 
was  made  the  instrument  to  help  others.  Several  years  ago,  I  formed  the 
plan  to  print  this  book,  to  send  to  all  the  families  where  I  had  preached. 
Now  I  am  able  to  carry  out  my  plan,  and  also  to  offer  the  book  to  the 
world. 

This  is  the  brief  story  of  the  origin  of  this  book.  It  may  fall  into  the 
hands  of  some  who  are  having  trouble,  such  as  I  had,  to  find  the  Road.  The 
love  commanded  by  Jesus  seeks  to  be  kind  and  helpful,  hence  the  book  has 
been  written  and  is  sent  forth  to  its  known  and  unknown  readers. 


If  at  the  selling  price  there  is  any  gain  above  the  cost,  it  will  be  added 
to  the  fund  for  its  circulation,  laid  up  by  years  of  saving  for  this  purpose. 
Without  regard  to  the  price  elsewhere  given,  arrangements  are  made  to 
send  the  book  in  paper  covers  until  January  6,  1905,  to  students  and 
teachers  in  all  schools,  for  fifteen  cents;  and  until  that  date  also,  ALL  WHO 

WILL  LOAN   THE   BOOK   TO   OTHERS,   OR  WHO  WILL  GIVE  IT  AWAY,  can  have  it 

at  this  same  price. 

The  numberings  of  the  paragraphs  connect  the  notes  with  the  text  in 
the  order  by  which  they  together  should  be  read. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  credit  to  all  authors  who  have,  in  my  lifetime  of 
reading,  helped  me  to  make  this  little  book.  The  aim  was  to  make  it  small, 
and  in  order  to  do  that  I  have  put  into  its  preparation  a  great  amount  of 
work.  There  are  chapters  which  were  twice  as  long  to  begin  with,  and 
which  have  been  rewritten  many  times.  There  are  references  made  to  some 
books,  which  may  be  found  in  the  large  libraries  now  common.  Other  good 
books  treat  of  subjects  to  which  I  call  attention.  There  is  no  book  how- 
ever that  I  know  of,  which  develops  the  Scripture  teaching  of  the  Road  as 
it  is-  done  in  this  book.  It  is  my  own  work,  and  is  published  on  my  own 
responsibility.  The  notes  and  Scripture  texts  referred  to,  should  all  be 
read.  At  the  end  will  be  found  a  carefully  prepared  index. 

I  know  the  ground  over  which  I  have  traveled,  and  expect  the  criticism 
of  ecclesiastics;  but  the  book  is  for  those  who  want  it,  and  where  it  is 
needed  it  will  be  kindly  read.  We  have  come  to  a  period  in  the  history  of 
Christianity;  and  the  churches  which  will  not  stand  for  Jesus  Christ,  are  as 
certainly  doomed  as  were  the  churches  planted  by  the  Apostles  when  they 
turned  to  Grseco-Roman  Christianity.  If  the  earnest  reader  sees  that 
my  book  separates  Jesus'  religion  from  corrupt  Christianity,  then  he  will 
rejoice  in  its  truth  and  in  the  responsibility  which  the  light  brings.  "  WE 
LIVE  BUT  ONCE;  LET  us  STRIKE  HOME  FOR  WE  ARE  GOING  HOME  !"  Hoping 
to  be  present  with  you  at  the  resurrection  of  the  just,  Farewell ! 

C.  C.  HARRAH. 

Des  Moines,  Iowa,  1902. 

FROM  TWO  AUTOGRAPH  LETTERS. 

BOSTON,  December  27,  1888. 

2.  "  *  *  *  Thanks  for  your  leaflets.  They  are  bright,  keen,  aggressive, 
progressive.  *  *  *  We  live  but  once, — let  us  strike  home,  for  we  are  going  home  ! 

Yours  very  respectfully,        JOSEPH  COOK. 
CHICAGO,  May  22,  1893. 

"  ....  Your  tract  is  in  perfect  harmony  with  all  the  preaching  I  have  done  in 
twenty-five  years.  *  *  *  It  contains  the  whole  truth  in  the  case.  *  *  *  It  may  help 
many  minds  that  are  in  doubt.  It  would  have  been  a  blessed  tract  to  me  when  as  a 
young  man  I  was  feeling  my  way  along  in  the  dark.  With  high  regards, 

Your  friend,        DAVID  SWING. 


anb  $Iraplj?t 


3.  "  After  the  Road  which  they  call  a  sect,  so  serve  I  the  God  of  our 
Fathers,  believing  all  things  which  are  according  to  the  Law,  and  which  are 
written  in  the  Prophets." — Acts  24:14. 

4.  "  And  an  highway  shall  be  there,  the  Road,  yea  the  Road  of  the 
Holy  One  it  shall  be  called;  the  unclean  shall  not  pass  over  it;  and  because 
He  shall  walk  the  Road,  even  simple  ones  shall  not  go  astray." — Isaiah 
35:8. 

5.  *Qd6s,  hodos,  the  Greek  word  meaning  road,  is  used  one  hundred 
and  two  times  in  the  New  Testament.     This  is  the  word  which  Paul  uses  in 
the  text  above. 

6.  M  v  v,  derec,  the  Hebrew  word  for  road,  is  used  six  hundred  and 
eighty  times  in  the  Old  Testament.     This  is  the  word  which  Isaiah  uses  in 
the  text  above. 

7.  These  Greek  and  Hebrew  words  signify  an  actual  road  or  track. 
The  word  "way"  is  commonly  used  to  translate  them  in  the  English  Bible; 
which  sometimes  means  a  road,  but  ordinarily  it  is  now  used  with  the  mean- 
ing of  "custom"  or  "manner."     The  Bible  reader  must  keep  in  mind  that 
"  way"  means  "  road."     The  two  texts  manifest  Jesus'  religion,  and  give  its 
clean-cut  name. 

8.  With  the  exception  of  the  word  Road  instead  of  Way,  the  Revised 
Version  is  followed  in  printing  the  first  text  above,  but,  in  order  to  express 
accurately  the  thought  of  the  Prophet,  I  give  my  own  translation  of  the 
second  text. 

9.  "  The  Road  is  the  received,  almost  technical  term  for  the  new  relig- 
ion, which  Paul  first  resisted  and  afterwards  supported." — GEORGE  GROVE, 
Crystal  Palace,  Sydenham. 

10.  "  This  was  the  name  by  which,  in  its  earliest  and  purest  day,  the 
Church  called  itself." — PROF.  STOKES,  University  of  Dublin. 


HUMANITY'S     PRAY  E  R. 


* 

pi-ayed    to    God  a 

lway»ActalO:'2 

''Lord,  teach  us  10  prayVLuke   11:1. 

«h 

I.Our    Fath-Vr 

J  U  j  4= 

in           heav  -  en       1 

—  J  j  j  rj  i~r- 
baJ  —  low     thy        name,      Tby 

i  i  r  f  * 

-i   ..|.  n     g.    r— 

—  t  —  --a  —  f  u  -t  — 

^4  r  '  h  —  F 

r    1  F   f  4= 

=                ' 

0    1  L 

j   j  j  i  j  j  j  i  j  n  \  >  —  i 

kii 

ig—  dom       in             heav  -en      and           earth  Le    the               same, 

t    •  r   s     /  1    t.    i    i  p    f  C   i    g  

terl  M  i  J  J-J 

1.  J        J.    j      1     f 

=t=1 

0  jive  to  me  dai  —  ly  my 
Keep  ma  from  temp  —  ta  —  tion  from 

irrfr-f  HC  g  lf-F-4- 

por—  tion     of         bread 
weak-  ness  and           sin, 

i  F  :  rrr 

,    it 

And 

1  h   r  |  i=^= 

ito  j   H  •  ^  + 

J         j.        K       1 

I     J     j      1      ;  1    1 

is         froTn     thy 
thine      be        the         g 

^b    6      F:    f    1 

»oun  —  ty       tlfat 
lo  —  ry         for  

all      must     be             fed    . 
ev  —  er  ,      a  men  * 

_!  —  •  ir    1 

11.  Be  not  afraid  to  pray — to  pray  is  right, 

Pray  if  thou  canst,  with  hope;  but  ever  pray, 
Though  hope  be  weak,  or  sick  with  long  delay: 

Pray  in   the  darkness  if  there  be  no  light. 

Far  is  the  time,  remote  from  human  sight, 

When  war  and  discord  on  the  earth  shall  cease; 
Yet  every  prayer  for  universal  peace 

Awaits  the  blessed  time  to  expedite. — COLERIDGE. 


QHp  W0rU>'ii 

Matt.  6:5-15;  Luke  11:1-13. 

12.  The  Lord's  Prayer  is  the  true  model  of  prayer.    It  was  given  by  Jesus 
to  his  disciples  on  two  different  occasions.  It  is  the  ten  commandments  turned 
into  prayer;  the  command  to  keep  God's  law  being  turned  into  prayers  to 
enable  us  to  keep  that  law.     It  lays  down  the  lines  on  which  we  should 
frame  our  petitions;  removes   the   distance   and   ceremoniousness  of  our 
approach  to  God;  counteracts  the  selfishness  of  our  desires,  and  enlarges 
our  horizon  so  as  to  comprehend  the  welfare  of  the  whole  world. — HUGH 
MACMILLAN. 

13.  The  Lord's  Prayer  contains  the  sum  total  cf  religion  and  morals. — 
DUKE  OF  WELLINGTON. 

14.  Do  you  wish  to  see  that  which  is  really  sublime?  Repeat  the  Lord's 
Prayer. — NAPOLEON. 

15.  At  the  Parliament  of  the  World's  Religions,  Chicago,  1893,  the 
Lord's  Prayer  was  recognized  as  the  universal  prayer;  and  Christians,  Jews, 
Mohammedans,  Buddhists  and  Brahamans  together  prayed:   "  Our  Father 
who  art  in  heaven." 

16.  Anyone  who  will  follow  along,  step  by  step,  in  the  thought  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  will  see  that  the  two  things  required  in  order  to  pray  it 
acceptably  are  sincerity  and  worship.     It  exactly  expresses  Jesus'  thought 
of  universal  and  spiritual  worship,  which  must  be  "in  spirit  and  in  truth." 
— Jno.  4:24. 

17  The  words  on  the  opposite  page  are  slightly  changed  from  those 
found  in  old  hymn  books.  The  tune  was  a  growth  in  the  mind  of  the  author, 
in  the  daily  private  use  of  the  Lord's  Prayer. 

18.  That  brief  and  grand  prayer,  came  strangely  into  my  mind,  with  an 
altogether  new  emphasis;  *  *  *   I  never  felt  before  how  intensely  the  voice 
of  man's  soul  it  is;  the  inmost  inspiration  of  all  that  is  high  and  pious  in 
poor  human  nature;  right  worthy  to  be  recommended  with  an  "After  this 
manner  pray  ye." — THOMAS  CARLYLE. 

19.  There  is  nothing  in  the  Gospels  that  tells  us  more  certainly  what 
the  Gospel  is,  and  what  sort  of  disposition  and  temper  it  produces,  than  the 
Lord's  Prayer. — PROF.  HARNACK 


Introduction. 

I.     Christian  and  Christianity. 
II.     The  Religion  of  the  World  with  its  clean- 
cut  Name. 

III.  Manifestation     of      God's       Permanent 

Religion. 

IV.  The  Religion  of  the  Present  and  Future. 
V.      Life  and  Light  in  every  Land. 

VI.     Ingredients  of  God's  Permanent  Religion. 
VII.     Ordinances  not  Sectarian. 
VIII.     Jesus  The  Friend  and  Reformer. 
IX.     The  Road  to  Destruction. 
X.      Immortality  and  Resurrection. 
Conclusion. 


"  Let  me  live  in  a  house  by  the  side  of  the  road, 

Where  the  race  of  men  go  by — 
The  men  who  are  good  and  the  men  who  are  bad, 

As  good  and  as  bad  as  I. 
I  would  not  sit  in  the  scorner's  seat, 

Or  hurl  the  cynic's  ban — 
Let  me  live  in  a  house  by  the  side  of  the  road 

And  be  a  friend  to  man. 

I  see  from  my  house  by  the  side  of  the  road, 

By  the  side  of  the  highway  of  life, 
The  men  who  press  on  with  the  ardor  of  hope, 

The  men  who  are  faint  with  the  strife. 
But  I  turn  not  away  from  their  smiles  nor  their  tears- 

Both  parts  of  an  infinite  plan- — 
Let  me  live  in  a  house  by  the  side  of  the  road, 

And  be  a  friend  to  man." — ANON. 


IRuab  of 


CHRISTIAN  AND  CHRISTIANITY. 

20.  "Our  Father    *  *  *    Thy  kingdom  come.     Thy  will  be  done  as  in 
heaven  so  on  earth."  l 

21.  "True  worshipers  shall  worship  the  Father  in  spirit  and  truth;  for 
such  doth  the  Father  seek  to  be  his  worshipers."  2 

22.  "On  earth  peace  among  men."  3 

I.     THE  ROAD,  MEN  AND  RELIGION. 

23.  Road  is  the  name  by  which  the  religion 
of  Jesus  was  first  known.     Christianity  is  a  later 
name.     When    men    lived   a   nomadic   life   and 
weapons  and  tools  were  made  of  stone,  there  were 
roads  for  travel  from  place  to  place.     They  are 
as  ancient  or  even  more  ancient  than  dwellings; 
for  if  there  were  not  men  to  make  them  by  their 
nomadic  habits,  the  animals  made  trails  which 
became  the  paths  or  roads  of  men.     They  cannot 
be  separated  from  the  history  of  men.     Christian 
Europe,  Pagan  Asia,  American  wilds,  and  dark- 
est Africa,  are   all  checkered  over  wTith   roads, 
which  date  back  for  their  origin  to  the  first  men 
and  animals. 

24.  By  legislative  acts,  the  public  in  all  civil- 
ized lands  have  the   free   and   absolute  use   for 
travel  of  the  highways  by  land  and  by  water  for- 
ever.    The  name  comes  from  the  trails  along  the 

'Matt.  6:10.        2John  4:23.         3Luke    2:14. 


10  THE    ROAD 

sides  and  tops  of  hills,  where  for  ages  before 
there  was  any  civilization  the  wild  men  traveled. 
On  the  highest  ground,  these  highways  were  free 
from  the  floods  and  plunder  of  the  low  lands. 
They  also  afforded  advantages  of  outlook  and 
signaling;  and  the  winds  swept  them  clean  of 
leaves  and  snow.  The  winding  "ridge  road/'  fol- 
lowing in  many  cases  the  Indian  trail,  is  well 
known  to  the  early  settlers  all  over  the  West.1 

25.  A  thing  so  closely  related   to  human  life, 
so  continuously  identified  with   every  phase  of 
human   activity,   and   withal  such  a  real  thing, 
was  selected  by  God  to  give  name  to  his  religion 
for  the  world. 

26.  The  name  Road  in  itself  suggests  plain, 
straightforward  business  in  giving  and  receiving 
the  message  of  religion;  and  the  message  of  this 
book  is  to  men  who  have  not  time  or  patience 
to  go  into  controversies  or  to  play  with  the  small 
things  of  unimportant  beliefs. 

27.  The  New  Testament  is  made  up  of  twenty- 
seven  parts  which  treat  of  the  greatest  subjects 
in  existence;  and  yet  what  a  little  book  it  is — just 
the  thing  for  the   busy   men  of  business.     The 
message  of  Jesus  and  the  Apostles  was  to  earnest 
men.2 


'Hulberte'  "Red  Men's  Roads,"  p.  8;  Clodd's  "Childhood  of  the  World," 
pp.  8,  33,  48. 

28.  2John  the  Baptist  was  a  type  of  modern  evangelists.  He  did 
much  good  by  the  many  good  things  he  said,  but  how  few  did  Jesus  gather 
after  a  few  months  from  the  thousands  who  received  the  water  baptism? 
Jesus'  method  was  to  seek  the  earnest  people  and  require  the  rabble  to 
stop  and  consider  in  order  that  they  might  become  earnest  and  sincere. 
Compare  Luke  13:24;  14:25-33;  Matt.  15:25-28;  19:23-29;  Jno.  6:26; 
Jer.  29:13. 


THE   ROAD  11 

29.  Earnest  men  like  certainty.     In  business 
measures  they  steer  clear  of  doubt.     Jesus  tells 
of  a  man  who  bought  a  field,  but  he   knew  first 
that  a  pearl  was  there.1     The  stern  realization  of 
existence  goads  a  man   to  seek  certainty  where 
his  welfare  is  involved.2 

31.  The  reasons  which  lead  earnest  men   to 
seek   improvement   and   self-protection,   and   to 
have  regard  for  the   future,   force   them   to  be 
interested  in  religion.     They  cannot  ignore  the 
problems   of   existence   and   destiny,   for  which 
there  is  no  solution  outside  of  religion. 

32.  The   sense  of  existence  is   attended  by  a 
sense  of  earnest  personal   responsibility,   which 
leads  straight  to  these  two  facts: — God  made  me, 
and  God  meant  me.     The  outcome  of  honest  deal- 
ing with  these  facts  is  relation  to  God,  which  is 
religion.3    Man  and  God  are  bound  to  come  together; 
except  the  man  is  wrong  or  dead  to  the  meaning 
of  existence.4 

1  Matt.  13:46. 

30.  2  "It  is  a  most  earnest  thing  to  be  alive  in  this  world;  to  die  is 
not  sport  for  a  man.     Man's   life  never  was  a  sport  to  him,  it  was  a  stern 
reality,  altogether  serious  matter  to  be  alive." — Carlyle's  "Hero  Worship," 
Lect.  1. 

33.  3The   claptrap    of  the   religion-monger  may   attract   the   rabble 
but  it  repels  earnest  men.     Prof.  Harnack  says:  "Apologists  imagine  that 
they  are  doing  a  great  work  by  crying  up  religion  as  though  it  were  a  job 
lot  at  a  sale,  or  a  universal  remedy  for  all  social  ills.     They  are  perpetually 
snatching,   too,   at  all  sorts   of  baubles,  so  as  to  deck  out  religion  in  fine 
clothes.      In   their   endeavor  to  present   it   as  a  glorious  necessity,   they 
deprive  it  of  its  earnest character '."--Harnack's"What  is  Christianity  ,"p.  8. 

The  apostles  showed  religion  to  be  a  sure  thing  of  great  gain  for  the 
life  that  now  is,  and  the  life  to  come.  1  Tim.  4:8;  6:6.  It  is  real  and 
worth  more  than  pearls. 

34.  4Few  men  of  greater  brain  power  have  lived  than  Daniel  Web- 
ster. When  asked  for  the  greatest  thought  that  ever  entered  his  mind,  he 
replied  that  it  was  God  and  his  responsibility  to  Him. 


12  THE  ROAD 

35.  The  religious  intuition  of  Jesus  was  so 
active  and  spontaneous  that  when  he  spoke,  the 
people  saw  it  was  the  utterance  of  real  religion. 
Jesus  never  made  a  concession  or  an  apology; 
and  if  man  and  God  did  not  come  together  in  his 
religion,  then  the  wrong  man,  by  repentance,  was 
the  only  one  who  had  to  change.1  The  religion 
without  change  was  to  stand  and  it  cannot  be  mod- 
ified or  changed  to  suit  the  notions  of  any  man.2 

38.  Jesus7  disciples  were  a  mixed  body  of  peo- 
ple; which  showed  the  adaptation  of  the  religion 
to  men  of  all  classes.  About  the  only  things  com- 
mon between  them  were  their  need,  sincerity  and 
earnestness.3 

40.  The  apostles  were  earnest  men,  otherwise 
they  would  not  have  heeded  Jesus'  call  "straight- 
way" and  "immediately"  and  "forsaken  all." 
They  were  not  men  of  letters  and  philosophy,  but 
business-like  men  with  decision.4 


36.  *  Jesus  spoke  out  of  his  own  fulness  and  from  himself;  and  men 
saw  then  and  they  still  see  that  in  him  is  the  truth.     The  rabble,  high  and 
low,  who  now  make  of  the  churches  amusement  halls,  cared  nothing  for  the 
truth  then  and  they  care  nothing  for  it  now.      Jno.  6:26.      Indifference  is 
the  beastly  state  into  which  many  have  come.     Isai.  ch.  1. 

37.  2"My  words  shall  not  pass  away."     Matt.  24:35.      "If  any  man 
preacheth  unto  you  any  gospel  other  than  that  which  ye  received,  let  him 
be  anathema."     Gal.  1:9. 

39.  3  The  rejection  of  men  by  Jesus  is  hardly  less  noticeable  in  the  Gos- 
pels than  his  calls  and  choices.  The  insincere,  whose  interest  it  was  to 
build  up  themselves;  and  the  self-righteous,  fortressed  with  their  own  con- 
ceit, and  who  would  not  repent,  he  turned  away. — Parker's  "Ecce  Deus," 
pp.  84-117.  Jno.  3:5;  Mark  10:17;  Luke  10:25. 

41.  *  St.  Paul  is  not  an  exception.  He  was  foremost  of  all  an  earnest 
business  man.  Like  every  earnest  business  man,  his  whole  soul  went  into 
whatever  he  did.  He  was  not  a  professor  of  classic  learning  but  a  practical 
scholar  and  a  tent  maker  by  trade.  In  large  part  his  theology  grew  out  of 
his  own  experience;  and  he  was  "as  remote  as  possible  in  his  whole  way  of 
thinking  from  the  scholastic  theologian."  The  impression  made  upon  Paul 


THE  ROAD  13 

42.  The  success  of  Christianity  is  now  depend- 
ing upon  two  things:  (a)  the  making  of  it  over  to 
fit  Jesus'  religion,  and  (b)  the  attitude  toward  it  of 
earnest  men.  The  conviction  is  expressed  that 
earnest  men  in  all  the  walks  of  life,  especially 
earnest  working  men,  are  becoming  indifferent 
to  Christianity  and  tired  of  churchianity.1  At 
the  same  time  they  wish  to  be  understood  as  not 
opposed  to  Jesus. 

44.  This  indifference  of  men  in  all  the  indus- 
tries, to  the  public  worship  of  God;  and  the  trans- 
fer of  interest  from  the  church  to  secret  societies 
and  to  fraternal  unions,  many  of  the  men  never 
going  inside  a  church,  presents  a  gloomy  outlook.2 

46.  The  evil  will  not  be  remedied  by  evange- 
listic measures,  to  interest  the  rabble  and  to  pro- 


by  the  person  of  Jesus,  is  the  most  striking  thing  in  his  presentation  of  the 
Gospel.  And,  when  all  else  is  said,  the  effect  which  Jesus  had  on  the  lives 
of  his  disciples  tells  us  best  what  his  religion  is.  Paul  understood  Jesus, 
and  continued  his  work,  and  laid  the  foundations,  as  no  other  man  did,  of 
all  that  is  best  in  civilization.  Compare  Harnack's  "What  is  Christianity?" 
pp.  189,  192.  Brace's  "St.  Paul's  Conception  of  Christianity,"  pp.  26-33, 
and  Farrar's  "Life  of  St.  Paul,"  pp.  35-39,  Vol.  1.  Matt.  4:19-22;  Phil.  3:13. 

43.  l  This  opinion  that  the  number  of  indifferent  people  is  increasing 
is  shared  by  many  careful  observers.  Josiah  Strong  in  "The  Great  Awak- 
ening" quotes  and  endorses  the  saying  of  Prof.  Bruce:  "To  be  enthusiastic 
about  the  church  in  its  present  condition  is  impossible."  And  still,  what- 
ever may  be  the  true  condition  as  to  indifference,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
the  churches  have  in  their  membership  the  best  people  as  a  rule  in  every 
community;  and  if  their  work  is  handicapped,  still  it  is  the  best  work  that 
is  being  done,  and  is  not  a  failure. 

45.  2With  respect  to  the  different  classes  of  men,  the  condition  is 
too  much  like  that  of  Rome  in  the  period  of  its  decay;  when  religion  in 
large  part  was  turned  over  to  the  idle  and  shiftless,  and  to  the  few  good 
people  interested  in  worship  and  in  helping  the  rabble;  while  men  with 
ability  to  do  the  work  of  the  world  gave  themselves  to  making  money. 
"Life  of  St.  Paul,"  by  Conybeare  and  Howson,  Vol.  1,  p.  13;  Smith's  "His- 
tory of  the  World,"  Vol.  II,  pp.  547-567;  Farrar's  "Early  Christianity," 
pp.  8-9;  et  alii. 


14  THE  ROAD 

duce  emotional  results;  or  by  an  order  of  things 
on  the  physical  plane,  "social  settlements,"  "insti- 
tutional churches,"  etc.,  good  as  these  things  may 
be  in  certain  localities.  Jesus  did  not  proceed  in 
these  ways,  and  no  institution  planted  here  or 
there,  will  do  to  take  the  place  of  a  community  of 
Brotherhood.  Only  that  as  religion,  can  com- 
mand the  respect  of  earnest  men.  The  church 
that  Jesus  planted  was  a  Community  of  Brothers, 
and  was  a  richer  and  broader  fellowship  than  that 
of  any  fraternal  society;  and  joined  together,  by 
its  higher  meaning,  all  races  and  classes  of  earn- 
est people.  What  the  laboring  and  business 
people  have  lost  interest  in  is,  the  ecclesiastical 
institutions  and  the  cults  of  the  schools.1 

48.  The  burning  questions  of  to-day  are:  (a) 
shall  religion  take  its  appointed  place  of  spiritu- 
ality and  power,  and  minister  to  the  sum  of 
human  life  as  it  did  from  the  Day  of  Pentecost 
onward;  or,  shall  it  continue  as  a  cultus,  oper- 
ated by  ecclesiastics  and  theological  schools? 


47.  1  The  Standard  Dictionary  defines  "cultus"  as  "a  system  of  religious 
belief  and  worship,"  or  "state  of  religious,  ethical,  or  esthetic  development." 
"Cult"  is  defined  as  "a  cultis,"  or  "a  system  of  religious  rites  and  observ- 
ances." Hall's  "Modern  English"  is  quoted  as  follows:  "Cult  is  a  term 
which,  as  we  value  exactness,  we  can  ill  afford  to  do  without,  seeing  how 
completely  religion  has  lost  its  original  signification."  The  Brotherhood, 
gathered  together  from  the  community  by  a  common  trust  in  and  devotion 
to  their  Saviour,  and  which  came  to  be  known  as  the  church,  was  not  a  sys- 
tem of  beliefs  but  a  relation  to  a  Person-,  any  belief s  being  only  the  steps 
to  the  relation  with  the  Person.  The  religion  of  Jesus  therefore  is  an 
experience,  a  new  creation,  a  living  way,  a  drawing  of  men  into  his  own  life. 
No  one  who  joined  himself  to  the  Lord  had  the  suspicion  that  he  was  enter- 
ing an  institution  like  a  sectarian  church,  or  was  adopting  a  creed  system 
like  that  of  a  modern  cult.  The  New  Testament  contains  nothing  of  the 
kind.  What  Jesus  set  forth  as  the  kingdom  of  God,  was  a  union  of  love 
with  the  Father  by  fellowship  with  himself  in  holy  living.  See  paragraph  126. 


THE  ROAD  15 

and  (b)  shall  churches  exist  simply  as  the  living 
organism  of  the  Brotherhood  of  the  Community, 
the  blending  into  one  citizenship  and  one  family 
all  nationalities,  classes  and  ranks  of  mankind, 
infinitely  richer  in  meaning  than  any  of  these 
modern  brotherhoods;  or,  shall  they  continue  to 
exist  as  the  institutions  of  sects?1 

50.  The  Roman  empire  was  very  generous  in 
its  treatment  of  all  religions,  and  they  were  very 
numerous.     In  the  race  to  get  the  support  of  the 
influential  and  educated,  who  were  dead  in  skep- 
ticism   and    worldliness,    these    religions    were 
handicapped   by   their   own   superstitions.     The 
first  disciples  were  from  the  common,  laboring 
people;  but  it  was   not  long  before    their   new 
religion  began  to  attract  the  attention  of  the 
schools  of  philosophy,  where  it  was  judged  of  as 
another  cultus  to  be  added  to  the  great  n  amber 
already  existing.     It  commanded  a  degree  of  favor 
because  it  joined  with   philosophy  to   dissipate 
the  superstitions. 

51.  Greek  philosophy  and  the  Pagan  schools, 
by  their  training  of  the  intellect  and  morals,  pre- 
49.     *  The  church  is  a  living  body  and  is  more  than  an  organization. 

Eph.  1:23;  Col.  1:24.  It  has  its  own  living  Head,  Eph.  1:22;  Col.  1:18;  and 
its  own  Spirit  of  life,  Eph.  1:22;  John  17:23;  and  is  a  living  organism,  and  is 
more  than  the  brotherhoods  of  the  world,  Eph.  5:30;  Rom.  12:5.  It  was 
not  wise  to  sell  their  property  after  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  and  thus  to  ren- 
der themselves  incapable  of  future  self-support,  Rom.  15:26;  but  the  fact 
that  their  business  was  dominated  by  the  brotherhood  idea,  so  that  they 
were  willing  to  do  such  a  thing,  shows  the  deeply  planted  conviction  which 
they  had  of  the  church.  Twice  it  is  said  that  they  "had  all  things  com- 
mon," Acts  2:44;  4:32. 

This  development  of  the  church  idea  unmistakably  shows  what  its  nature 
was  to  be.  In  the  apostacy,  after  the  death  of  the  Apostles,  the  Common- 
wealth conception,  taken  from  the  Roman  government,  displaced  that  of 
Brotherhood,  and  the  church  began  its  career  accordingly  as  a  full-fledged 
Institution. 


16  THE  ROAD 

pared  the  way  for  the  entrance  of  the  religion  of 
Jes  us.  The  prepared  Greek  language  was  the  best 
that  had  ever  existed  to  express  the  teachings  of 
religion  and  to  convey  a  right  understanding  of 
Jesus'  principles.1 

52.  Antioch  was  a  great  city  of  500,000  people, 
proud  of  its  early  Greek  civilization.     Paul,  Bar- 
nabas and  others  preached  there.     The  attention 
of  some  of  the  scholarly  inclined  was  called  to 
their  work.     They  cared  nothing  for  Jesus  or  for 
the  Bible  or  for  the  religion;  but  as  all  cults  had 
a  name,  the  rise  of  a  new  one  at  Antioch  they  dis- 
tinguished   by    calling  it   "Christianity."     The 
spelling  of  the  name  as  they  made  it,  was  a  mix- 
ture of  Greek  and  Latin.     It  was  an  act  of  heathen 
presumption  and  irreverence,  done  in  ignorance 
of  the   religion,   and  one   of  disrespect   to   the 
Prophets  and  Apostles  who  certainly  were  the 
right  ones  to  give  it  a  name. 

53.  Great  stories  would  be  told  of  the  origin 
of  the  name  Christian,2  were  it  not  that  the  sim- 
ple history  in  the  book  of  Acts  cuts  off  the  claim 
that  would  be  made  for  its  inspiration.3    St.  Luke 
wrote  the  Acts  of  Apostles   and  the  Gospel  of 
Luke;  and  both  he  and  Paul  were  members  of  the 
church  in  Antioch  at  the  time  when  the  name 


1  "Both  Greeks  and  Romans  were  unconscious  servants  of  Jesus  Christ, 
'the  unknown  God.' "  SchafFs  "History  of  the  Christian  church,"  Vol.  1,  p.  45. 

54.  2  One  of  the  best  accounts  of  the  origin  of  the  name  Christian  is  found 
in  Farrar's  "Life  of  St.  Paul,"  Vol.  1,  pp.  288-301.  The  Apostle  warned 
the  disciples  of  the  influences  working  toward  an  apostacy,  Col.  2:8;  2  Tim. 
3:15.  It  destroyed  the  churches,  Rev.  chap.  II,  III,  and  the  same  influences 
will  keep  on  corrupting  and  destroying  wherever  they  exist.  The  name, 
with  its  cult  meaning,  has  always  been  a  corrupting  influence. 

3  Acts  11:26. 


THE  ROAD  17 

was  invented.  Such  an  act  by  the  cute  Pagans, 
who  had  formed  a  reputation  for  inventing  nick- 
names, would  not  escape  their  attention.  It  was 
done  about  fifteen  years  after  the  Day  of  Pente- 
cost; and  Luke's  books  were  written  fifteen  years 
later,  when  the  name  was  in  general  use  among 
the  Pagans.  Luke  never  used  the  names  Chris- 
tian or  Christianity!  St.  Paul  never  used  them!! 
nor  were  they  ever  used  by  any  of  the  writers  of 
the  New  Testament!!!  The  reasons  for  such 
uniform  silence  must  be  important  enough  to 
justify  inquiry.1 

56.  At  first  the  name  Christian  meant  only  ua 
partisan  of  Christ ;"  but,  when  hatred  arose 
toward  the  disciples,  the  name  was  made  to  mean 
also  a  renegade,  atheist  or  rebel.2  It  had  this  bad 
meaning  when  the  three  references  to  it  were 
made  by  New  Testament  writers.8  The  great  per- 
secutions by  Nero,  and  other  Roman  emperors, 
spread  the  name  everywhere,  with  the  meaning 
of  a  new  cult,  and  with  the  odious  meanings. 
The  persecutions  cleansed  the  churches  of  bad 
people,  and  those  who  remained  steadfast,,  after 
a  long  time,  redeemed  the  name  by  their  holi- 

55  !It  was  not  common  at  that  early  time  to  call  Jesus  by  his  official  name, 
"Christ";  and  the  frivolous  Pagans  made  up  the  name  "Christian"  from 
hearing  about  Jesus  office.  The  Jews  never  used  the  term,  because  it  was 
derived  from  the  name  Christ,  the  Greek  term  for  their  Messiah. 

2  See  "Lange's  Commentary,"  1  Pet.  4:16;  and  its  use  by  Tacitus,  quoted 
in  Fisher's  "Beginnings  of  Christianity,"  p.  528. 

57  3  The  first  example  is  the  simple  statement  as  to  the  origin  of  the 
name,  Acts  11:26;  the  second  instance  is  that  of  the  Roman  governor,  who 
used  the  name  the  same  as  he  would  have  used  Caesarean,  Herodian,  or 
Nazarene,  Acts  26:28;  the  third  example  makes  a  direct  reference  to  the 
odious  signification  of  the  term,  and  exhorts  to  patience  in  bearing  the 
ignominy  and  suffering. — 1  Pet.  4:16. 


18  THE  ROAD 

ness.  The  power  of  usage  forced  on  them  -  the 
name  Christian;  but  they,  in  turn,  forced  the 
world  to  investigate  the  religion  which  made 
their  holy  lives.1 

2.     FOR  A  TIME  CHRISTIANITY  MEANT  THE  ROAD. 

59.  The   first  writers  after  the   time   of  the 
Apostles,  the  Apostolic  Fathers,  as  a  rule  avoided 
the  use  of  the  terms  Christian  and  Christianity, 
the  same  as  the  New  Testament  writers.     In  the 
first  instances  where  the  names  occur,  they  have 
a  new  meaning.     From  the  signification  of  being 
ua  partisan  of  Christ,'7  the  disciples  changed  the 
name  Christian  to  mean,  "being  a  Christ." 

60,  The  pastor  at  Antioch,  over  half  a  century 
after  the  name  Christian  was  invented  there,  was 
Ignatius;  and  he  is  supposed  to  be  the  first  church 
writer  who  used  the  terms  Christian  and  Chris- 
tianity.    He   used    them    to    signify    "being    a 


58.  1  A  holy  life  with  its  works  of  righteousness  is  the  one  thing  which 
every  rnan  can  have;  and  every  such  life  is  a  success,  and  a  gain  to  the 
world.  Jesus  lived  such  a  life,  Acts  10:38.  The  orthodox  priest  failed  to 
have  such  a  life  of  goodness,  while  the  heterodox  Samaritan  was  Jesus'  ideal 
of  character  and  faith,  Luke  10:31-33.  The  Gospel  is  obeyed  by  self-sacri- 
ficing service  for  others.  The  believing  required  by  it  is  the  doing  of  the 
will  of  God.  Matt.  7:21-23;  25:40  — 

"Poor  sad  humanity 

Through  all  the  dust  and  heat, 

Turns  back  with  bleeding  feet 

By  the  weary  road  it  came, 

Unto  the  single  thought, 

By  the  great  Master  taught, 

And  that  remaineth  still: — 

Not  he  that  repeateth  the  name, 

But  he  that  DOETH  THE  WILL." 

—LONGFELLOW. 


THE  ROAD  19 

Christ/7  or  to  have  conduct  in  Christ  and  accord- 
ing to  Christ.1 

62.  Clement,  who  is  supposed  to  have  been 
the  friend  of  Paul  by  that  name,  wrote  to  the 
Corinthians   about   thirty-five   years  after  Paul 
died.     He  says  of  an  unfaithful  person:  "Nor  acts 
a  part  becoming  a  Christian/7  that  is,  ''becoming 
a  Christ."     He  also  speaks  of  "conduct  unworthy 
your  Christian  profession,"  by  which  he  meant 
"conduct  in  Christ." 

63.  It  is  said  that  Polycarp  was  instructed  by 
disciples  who  personally  knew  Jesus.     He  never 
uses  the  name  Christian  in  his  epistle,  written 
about  the  middle  of  the  second  'century;  but  in 
the  history  of  his  martyrdom,  written  after  he 
was  dead,  the  name  is  found  with  both  its  Pagan 
and  disciple  meanings.     Polycarp  said  as  a  dis- 
ciple, "I  am  a  Christian;"  and  the  heathen  cried 
out,  "Away  with  the  Atheists." 

64.  "The   Teaching  of  the  Twelve   Apostles" 
dates   back  to   from  thirty-five  to  seventy-five 
years  after  John  wrote  the  book  of  Revelations. 
It  calls  the  religion  of  Jesus,  "The  Way  of  Life/' 
and  the  one  who  does  not  walk  in  the  Road,  as  a 
Christ,  is  called  a  "Christ-monger."'    These  few 
examples,   are  about  all  there  is  in  the  earliest 

61.  l  See  Ignatius  to  the  Philadelphians,  ch.  VI;  to  the  Magnesians,  ch.  X, 
Clark's  Edinburgh  edition  of  "The  Apostolic  Fathers."  The  "notes"  indicate 
the  new  meaning  in  most  instances.  But  where  there  are  two  epistles,  as 
in  this  case  of  these  references,  no  one  can  tell  whether  the  one  which  uses 
the  term  "Christian"  is  the  genuine  epistle.  It  may  never  have  been  used 
at  all  by  Ignatius. 

2  See  the  "notes"  in  Clark's  "Apostolic  Fathers,"  First  Epistle  of  Clem- 
ent, ch.  Ill  and  XLVII. 

3  "Martyrdom  of  Polycarp,"  Clark's  "Apostolic  Fathers,"  ch.  Ill,  IX,  X. 
"Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,"  ch.  I,  VI,  XII. 


20  THE  ROAD 

writings  of  the  churches;  and  they  show  that  the 
term  Christian  was  used  only  for ''the  God-loving 
and  God-fearing  race  of  Christians/'  and  not  with 
the  Antiochian  signification  of  a  partisan  and 
member  of  a  cult. 

65.  In  all  religious  literature,  there  is  no  more 
beautiful  name  than  Jesuit.     It  is  derived  from 
the  name  Jesus,  and  is  so  appropriate  for  a  body 
of  sinful  people  who  love  the  Savior.     But  this 
name  is  objected  to   everywhere  because  those 
who   wear  it  are   spoken  against  as  evil   doers. 
With  the   meaning  of  "a  partisan  of  Jesus/'  or 
"a  partisan  of  Christ/7  both  Jesuit  and  Christian 
are  misleading  terms.     There  are  many  partisans 
of  Jesus  who  are  not  a  Jesus,  and  many  partisans 
of  Christ  who  are  not  a  Christ. 

3.     CHRISTIAN  NOT  "A  CHRIST"  IN  HISTORY. 

66.  Human  progress,  with  the  many  reforms 
and  recognitions  of  human  rights,  is  indebted  to 
truth  and  light  and  spirit  set  to  work  in  the  world 
by  Jesus  Christ. l    Christianity,  most  of  the  time, 
has  carried  more  of  this  influence  from  Jesus 
than  any  other  religion.     In  it  there  has  been  the 
strongest  recognitions   of  sin,  as  a  principal  at 
work  to  ruin  man;  and  it  has  given  the  fullest 
expression  of  responsibility  in  the  direction  of 
philanthropy. 

67.  When  all  is  said  in  favor  of  these  things 
that  the  truth  will  justify,  there  are  left  condi- 
tions which  point  to  a  wide  separation  of  Chris- 
tianity from  the  religion  of  Jesus.     It  has  taken 
advantage  of  the  conviction  of  sin,  to  bind  men 
to  an  institutional  church  and  to  the  ordinances 

1  See  Brace's  "Gesta  Christ!,"  and  other  histories  of  human  progress. 


THE  ROAD  21 

and  ecclesiastical  fixtures  of  a  statutory  religion. 
These  exactions  over-shadowed  that  true  repent- 
ance which  is  followed  by  a  yielding  of  oneself  to 
a  life  with  Jesus.  Devotion  to  a  church  took  the 
place  of  piety.  They  turned  aside  the  love  of 
truth  to  loyalty  to  a  creed,  which  served  to  array 
in  hostile  camps  the  most  conscientious  and  best 
people  of  the  world.  No  other  great  religion  has 
been  the  occasion  of  such  bitterness  and  war. 
As  a  religio-philosophic  cult,  it  has  perpetuated 
the  spirit  of  Greek  and  Roman  scholasticism  and 
ecclesiasticism ;  and  developed  out  of  this  spirit 
such  scholasticism  and  ecclesiasticism  as  Pagan 
Rome  never  knew. 

68.  No  people  on  earth  outside  of  Christen- 
dom, have  so  blackened  their  history  by  the  love 
of  money;  by  land  grabbing;  by  the  enrichment 
of  the   few  through    legalized    privileges   over 
nature's  stores,  laid  up  for  the  benefit  of  man- 
kind; by  the  strong  living  off  the  weak,  through 
great  monopolies  and  ill-proportioned  salaries; 
by  the  slave  trade,  and  the  far-reaching  wrongs 
of  the  slave  system;  by  militarism,  and  wars  of 
such  great  number  and  magnitude  that  the  peace 
prophecies  of  the  Prophets  have   a  better  ful- 
fillment in  some  of  the  heathen  lands  than  in 
Christendom. 

69.  Over  against  all  the  good  things  which 
may  be  named  for  Christian  civilization,  are  the 
acts  of  bigotry,  the  party  spirit,  ambition,  greed, 
appetite  and  lust.     There  is  no  parallel  elsewhere 
of  the  far-reaching  iniquities  and  debauchery  by 
means   of  liquor  saloons  and  the  liquor  traffic. 
No  other  lands  so  corrupt  their  blood  with  tobacco 


22  THE  ROAD 

or  indulge  to  such  an  extent  in  all  manner  of 
stimulants  and  narcotics;  or  go  to  such  excesses 
in  gluttony.  What  wrongs  have  been  perpe- 
trated against  the  weaker  races  of  other  lands, 
by  carrying  to  them  liquors,  by  the  opium  traffic, 
and  by  the  tobacco  trade.  The  Pagans,  at  the 
World's  Parliament  of  Religions,  pointed  to  the 
slaughter  houses  as  a  sign  of  our  wicked  civiliza- 
tion, and  the  comparisons  with  their  own  coun- 
tries made  us  ashamed.1  For  over  five  hundred 
years  a  divorce  was  not  granted  in  the  old  Roman 
Republic;  but  in  this  particular  how  low  have  we 
sunken!2  Liquor  saloons,  gambling  hells,  and 
houses  of  prostitution,  deluge  with  wickedness 
the  towns  and  cities.3  No  one  can  pray  the  Lord's 
prayer,  "Thy  kingdom  come/'  who  upholds  these 
things.4  They  are  the  manifestations  of  a  wide- 
spread and  abominable  apostacy  from  Jesus' 
religion. 

71.  It  was  the  object  of  Jesus'  teaching,  that 
all  men  should  be  united  to  God  their  Father  by 
a  moral  unity,  expressed  in  a  pious  life  of  merci- 
ful love.  His  words  and  his  life  were  like  leaven 
cast  into  the  mass  of  humanity,5  to  transform 
lives  and  society  into  a  likeness  to  that  of  the 

JNeely's  "History  of  the  Parliment,"  pp.  608-611. 

2  Lecky's  "History  of  European  Morals,"  Vol.  II,  pp.  317-319. 

70.  3  In  his  History  of  Humane  Progress,  "  Gesta  Christa,"  p.  2,  C.  L. 
Brace,  says:  "The  Christian  church  has  favored  practices  and  encouraged 
institutions  which  have  been  a  travesty  on  the  teachings  of  Christ,  and  an 
offence  to  every  feeling  of  humanity.  The  honest  student  who  searches  for 
a  pure,  benevolent  impress  of  the  great  teacher  on  the  wild  annals  of  human 
history,  must  divest  himself  of  much  reverence  for  the  so-called  'church'  of 
Christ  on  earth.  The  church  that  is  seen  and  known  of  men,  represents 
often  anything  but  his  image." 

4  Matt.  6:9;  Luke  11:1-13;  John  13:5-17. 
5Matt.  13:33. 


THE  ROAD  23 

angels  in  heaven.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that 
the  whole  world  is  coming  thus  to  see  Jesus' 
religion,  and  to  distinguish  between  it  and  the 
bad  ways  of  men,  who  uphold  wickedness  at 
home  and  who  go  out  from  Christian  countries 
and  governments  to  give  such  a  bad  impression 
of  Christianity  to  the  people  of  other  religions. 

4.     THE  LEADING  POINTS  MANIFESTED  IN  THIS  CHAPTER. 

72.  The    names    Christian    and    Christianity 
are  not  used  in  the  books  of  the  New  Testament, 
written  after,  and  some  of  them  a  long  time  after, 
the  names  were  invented  and  in  use  among  the 
Pagans. 

73.  The  reasons  for  not  using  these   names 
in  the  New  Testament,  must  have  been  import- 
ant enough  to  the  writers,  especially  writers  so 
well  informed  in  the  case  as  were  Paul  and  Luke, 
to  justify  us  in  the  enquiry  as  to  the  nature  of 
these  names,  to  know  if  they  are  misleading. 

74.  The  origin  of  the  names  creates  suspicion, 
on    account    of    the    character    of    the    Pagan 
people  at  Antioch,  and  on  account  of  the  fact  that 
the  Prophets,  Apostles,  Disciples,  and  even  the 
Jews  who  were  not  disciples,  had  nothing  to  do 
with  their  origin.     The   Pagan  inventors   were 
ignorant  of  the  nature  of  the  religion. 

75.  Invented    as    the    name    Christian    was, 
to  denote  a  partisan  of   Christ,  and  the  name 
Christianity  to  denote  another  cult  of  philosophy 
and  religion,  they  had  not  the  meaning  which 
the  New  Testament  gives  to  "walk"  or  "Road." 
Christianity  meant  a  system  of  ideas;  the  Road 


24  THE  ROAD 

meant  a  real  object  or  thing,  of  world- wide  exist- 
ence, and  free  from  the  school  or  sect  nature. 

76.  The  little    churches   of   humble    people, 
reduced  by  the  persecutions,  had  the  name  Chris- 
tian with  its  odious  Pagan  meanings,  forced  upon 
them;  but  before  using  it  among  themselves,  they 
raised   the   name   out   of  its   bad   signification. 
They  made  Christian  to  mean  "a  Christ." 

77.  There    has    always    been    more    or    less 
of  Jesus'  religion  in  Christianity.     When  it  all 
becomes  true  and  loyal  to  Jesus,  his  kingdom  will 
be  one  of  peace,  and  will  quickly  spread  over  the 
world,  and  the  Lord's  prayer  will  be  answered. 
But  the  darkness  now  gives  little  hope  of  an  early 
change. 


II. 

THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  WORLD  WITH  ITS 
CLEAN-CUT  NAME. 

78.  "  After  the  Road,  which  they  call  a  sect,  so  serve  I  the  God  of  our 
Fathers,  believing  all  things  which  are  according  to   the  Law,  and  which 
are  written  in  the  Prophets." 

"Any  that  were  of  the  Road. 

"Instructed  in  the  road  of  the  LORD. 

"Expounded  unto  him  the  Road  of  God. 

"Some  were  hardened  and  disobedient,  speaking  evil  of  the  Road. 

"No  small  stir  concerning  the  Road. 

"And  I  persecuted  this  Road  unto  the  death.1 

I.  ENTRUSTED  WITH  THE  ORACLES  OF  GOD. 

79.  There  is  no  intention  in  the  space  of  this 
little  book,  to  describe  the  good  things  of  Chris- 
tianity; for  that,  book  stores  have  whole  libraries. 
Bad  things,  not  in  any  exaggerated  style,  but 
actual  bad  things  are  exposed,  and  the  need   of 
repentance  and  of  the  religion  of  God  is  shown.2 
Christianity  may  perish,  on  account  of  the  evils 
which  it  sanctions  and  tolerates;  as  ancient  Juda- 
ism and  the  Graeco-Roman  systems  perished,  and 
out  of  the  wrecks  of  which  Christianity  arose. 
On  the  great  stone  wall  of  a  vast  Mohammedan 
mosque,  in   Damascus,   the   traveler  Mr.  Marsh 
found  this  inscription:  "Thy  kingdom,  0  Christ, 

1  Acts.     24:14;  9:2;  18:26;  19:9;  19:23;  22:4. 

80.  2  There  are  good  people  and  good  churches  everywhere;  but  that 
does  not  change  the  general  conditions  and  the  fearful  apostacies,  1  Kings 
19:10-18. 


26  THE  ROAD 

is  the  kingdom  of  all  ages,  and  thy  dominion  is 
from  generation  to  generation;"  and  that  was  the 
only  trace  left  in  the  city  where  St.  Paul  first 
learned  of  the  Road,  of  the  ancient  existence  of  a 
Christian  church.  This  example,  and  the  extinc- 
tion of  all  the  churches  planted  by  the  Apostles, 
shows  that  God  takes  no  pains  to  preserve  Chris- 
tianity, more  than  any  other  cultus,  when  it 
becomes  corrupt. 

81.  What   advantage   then    has    Christianity 
over  Buddhism,  or  any  other  religious   cultus? 
"Much  every  way;  first  of  all  that  it  has  been 
entrusted  with  the   oracles  of  God."1    God  has 
blessed  Christianity  as  a  Bible  circulating  medium; 
and  that  is  the  chief  and  almost  exclusive  work 
to  which  missionaries  should  give  themselves.2 
Other  religions  all   over  the   world,   are   being 
improved  by  the  knowledge  of  our  Scriptures. 
Japan,  for  example,  has  already  forty  Christian 
sects;  and,  notwithstanding  the  harm  which  this 
sectarianism  has  done,  they  have  accomplished 
great  good  by  circulating  the  Bible. 

82.  The  Buddhists  know  the  wrong  of  divisions. 
One  leader  says:    "It  is  a  surprise  to  us  that  they 
do  not  agree  together  better." ;     Many  Pagans  are 
intelligent  and  distinguish  between  sectarianism 
and  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  which  say:    "By  this 
shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye 
have  love  one  to  another/'4  No  one  does  anything 
in  any  land  to  obey  "the  great  commission"5  who 

1  Rom.  3:2. 
2 1  Pet.  4:11. 

3  Count  Otani  Kozui,  in  New  York  Independent,  Dec.  27,  1900. 

4  John  13:35. 

Matt.  28:19;  Acts  1:8;  10:47;  11:19. 


THE  ROAD  27 

does  not  give  forth  this  love  and  Brotherhood  con- 
ception of  Jesus' Gospel;  and  the  Scriptures,  which 
contain  this  truth,  will  incline  the  heathen 
toward  Jesus,  as  we  see  in  Japan,  where  many 
Buddhists  acknowledged  Jesus  to  have  been  a 
Buddha,  and  as  we  see  among  the  Brahmo  Somaj 
in  India,  who  also  have  knowledge  of  Jesus.  The 
effect  is  thus  produced  which  Jesus  himself  indi- 
cated: "As  thou  didst  send  me  into  the  world, 
even  so  I  send  them  into  the  world  *  *  * 
that  they  may  all  be  one  *  *  *  that  the 
world  may  believe  that  thou  didst  send  me." l 

84.  In  its  outward  expression  the  religion 
which  Jesus  entrusted  to  his  disciples  was  to 
manifest  him,  the  Savior  and  Friend  of  man,  as 
he  had  manifested  the  Father;  and  in  this  great 
service  they  were  to  keep  his  commandments,  by 
doing  as  he  himself  had  done.  No  sects  were  to 
be  torn  down,  and  no  sect  was  to  be  built  up. 
They  were  to  preach  Christ,  and  held  no  com- 
mission to  supercede  other  systems  by  a  new 
ritual,  ordinances,  and  a  new  statutory  religion. 
Jews  were  not  to  be  perplexed  by  opposition  to 
their  customs,  and  Gentiles  were  to  have  placed 
upon  them  no  yoke  of  bondage  by  ceremonial 
code.  There  was  no  clergy;  but  deacons  in  their 
ministrations  went  to  the  houses  of  the  poor,  and 
naturally  became  the  first  preachers,  like  Stephen 
and  Philip.  And  thus  was  started  the  glorious 
work  which  has  resulted  in  the  solid  and  durable 
institutions  of  Christian  beneficence.  The  two 

83.  1  John  17:18-23.  The  union  of  disciples  and  the  world's  conversion 
go  together.  The  meaning  of  "that  the  world  may  believe,"  is  "so  that  the 
world,  etc."  A  result  is  meant. 


28  THE  ROAD 

churches  which  became  the  most  noted,  Rome 
and  Antioch,  were  originated  by  laymen;  and  the 
former,  for  twenty-five  years,  was  managed  by 
laymen. 

85.  The   Brotherhood   of  the   community  of 
believers  more  and  more  came  to  be  composed  of 
both  Jews  and  Gentiles,  and  in  the  course  of  two 
generations  the  church  of  Jesus  became  a  sepa- 
rate body  from   necessity.     The  other  religions 
were  tribal  and  national;  and  they  opposed  the 
Gospel  when  it  was  understood  that  its  message 
was  to  all  men  alike.     At  this  point  there  was 
great  danger  that  the  Old  Testament  would  be 
dropped,  along  with  Judaism,  and  we  cannot  be 
too  thankful  that  the  Christian  Gentiles  in  this 
severe  crisis,  joined  with  the  Christian  Jews  to 
claim  the  Old  Testament.     The  world's  religion 
was  now  understood  to  be  anti-national  and  anti- 
Judaic,   and    to    sustain    its    position,    constant 
appeals  had  to  be  made  to  the  prophets.  This  kept 
the  Old  Testament  in  constant  use,  and  it  became 
a  part  of  the  fixtures  of  the  church.     The  Bible 
is    the   magnificent  heritage   of  modern   Chris- 
tianity from  Judaism  and  Rome;  and  it  is  the 
crowning  glory  of  Christendom,  that  it  is  in  a 
position  to  offer  to  every  man  on  the  earth  a 
whole  Bible.     On  the  one  hand  is  this  magnifi- 
cent opportunity  of  Christianity;  and  on  the  other 
hand  is  the  dark  outlook  by  worldliness,  ecclesi- 
asticism  and  cowardice. 

2.  IT  SHALL  BE  CALLED  THE  ROAD  OF  THE  HOLY  ONE. 

86.  Isaiah  thus  describes  the  glory  of  Jesus' 
religion  for  the  world:    "An  highway  shall   be 


THE  ROAD  29 

there,  the  Road,  and  it  shall  be  called  the  Road 
of  the  Holy  One,  the  unclean  shall  not  pass  over 
it;  and  because  He  shall  walk  the  Road,  even  the 
simple  ones  shall  not  go  astray.  No  lion  shall 
be  there,  nor  shall  any  ravenous  beast  go  up 
thereon,  they  shall  not  be  found  there;  and  the 
ransomed  of  the  LORD  shall  return,  and  come 
with  singing  unto  Zion." 

88.  The  Road  was  to  be  so  good  and  safe  that 
common  people  could  travel  it  with  perfect 
safety.  How  exalted  is  the  conception  of  religion 
in  the  following  passages,  which  we  will  best 
understand  by  substituting  the  wrord  Road  for 
"way:"  "My  people  have  forgotten  me,  they 
have  burned  incense  to  vanity;  and  they  have 
caused  them  to  stumble  in  their  ways,  in  ancient 
paths  to  walk  in  by-paths,  in  a  way  not  cast  up.77 
"Stand  ye  in  the  ways  and  see,  and  ask  for  the 
old  paths,  where  is  the  good  way,  and  walk 
therein,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  for  your  souls. " 
"Thou  wilt  show  me  the  path  of  life. 

In  Thy  presence  is  fulness  of  joy; 

At   Thy   right  hand  there   are   pleasures  for- 

evermore." 

"See  if  there  be  anyway  of  wickedness  in  me, 

And  lead  me  in  the  way  everlasting." 

87.  Isaiah  35:8.  This  remarkable  verse  is  poorly  translated  in  the  - 
English  Bible.  The  Hebrew  is  so  emphatic  and  points  so  clearly  to  a  per- 
son, that  I  think  the  Prophet  meant  "Holy  One"  instead  of  "holiness"  and  I 
so  translate  it.  "The  Road"  is  emphatic  also.  The  help  by  the  example 
and  presence  of  the  Holy  One  in  the  Road,  as  the  example  of  Jesus  helps 
one  to  live  right,  is  the  reason  why  "simple"  ones  find  it  easy  to  keep  the 
Road.  This  passage  refers  to  the  Messianic  kingdom,  and  should  not  be 
limited  to  refer  only  toj  the  road  of  the  Jews  from  Babylon  to  Jerusalem. 
Oppression,  cruelty  and  war,  represented  by  wild  beasts,  have  no  place  in 
Jesus'  kingdom. 


30  THE  ROAD 

"Prepare  ye  in  the  wilderness  the  way  of  the 
LORD,  make  straight  in  the  desert  a  highway 
for  our  God.  Every  valley  shall  be  exalted, 
and  every  mountain  and  hill  shall  be  made 
low:  and  the  crooked  shall  be  made  straight, 
and  rough  places  plain:  and  the  glory  of  the 
LORD  shall  be  revealed,  and  all  flesh  shall  see  it 
together." ' 

89.  The  examples  in  the  Book  of  Acts  of  the 
use  of  the  term  for  Jesus7  religion,  some  of  which 
are  given  at  the  head  of  this  chapter,  show  that 
Road  as  a  Bible  name  should  be  clearly  under- 
stood.    It  was  an  occasion  for  the  use  of  words 
with   exact   meanings   when  Paul,   twenty-four 
years  after  his  conversion,  was  put  on  trial  before 
the  governor  Felix.     He   was   accused,   among 
other  things,  of  being  a  ringleader  of  the  sect  of 
the  Nazarenes.     He  denied  that  the  religion  was 
a  "sect,"  and  called  it  "the  Road;"  a  name  which 
to   him    meant    an    unsectarian    and    universal 
religion. 

90.  There  is  one  principal  Greek  word,  and 
nine  other  terms  less  common,  which,  in   both 
versions  of  the  New  Testament,  the  word  "way" 
is   used   to   translate.2     Two    Greek    words    are 
translated  "path."     In  the   Old   Testament,  one 

1  Jer.  6:16;  18:15;  Ps.  16:11;  139:24;  Isaiah  40:3-5. 
91.  2  The  common  version  utterly  fails  to  give  the  meaning  of  the  texts 
in  the  Acts,  by  using  a  small  letter  where  it  should  be  a  capital.  The 
Revised  Version  uses  a  capital  in  most  instances.  Every  text  in  the  Bible 
where  the  words  "way"  or  "ways"  are  used,  and  where  the  meaning  is  the 
Road  which  God  would  have  men  take,  should  be  translated  with  a  capital 
letter.  Prof.  Cremer's  Lexicon  gives  some  examples,  among  the  many: 
Ps.  18:21;  35:4,12;  Gen.  18:19;  Deut.  10-12;  Jer.  6:16;  Matt.  12:16;  Mark 
12:14;  Luke  20:21;  Heb.  3:10.  See  also  the  article  "way"  in  Smith's 
Bible  Dictionary,  p.  3488. 


UHIVER- 

31 


principal  Hebrew  word,  ancTseventeen  less  com- 
mon terms  are  translated  in  the  two  English 
versions  by  the  word  "  way." 

92.  The  principal  Greek  word,  hodos,  rendered 
"  way,"  is  used  one  hundred  and  two  times  in  the 
Greek  Testament,  and  in  nearly  every  instance 
the  rendering  would  be  clearer  and  more  real  if 
the  word  "road"  were  used  instead  of  "way."  The 
same  is  true  of  the  principal  Hebrew  word,  derec, 
in  the  Old  Testament. 

93.  When  Paul   used   this    term,    hodos,    for 
Jesus'  religion,  its  meaning  and  force  was  well 
understood.     If  we  had  no   navigable  rivers  or 
railroads;  and,  like  these  ancient  Hebrews,  had 
to  depend  upon  paths  and  highways,  our  roads 
would  have  to  us    a    better   understood    mean- 
ing and  they  would  receive  from  us  more  interest. 

94.  The    one  principal   Hebrew  word,    men- 
tioned above,  to  say  nothing  of  the  other  terms 
of  like  meaning,  is  found  in  the  Old  Testamont 
about  seven  hundred  times.     Three  hundred  and 
fifty  times  it  refers  to   a   road  for   travel;    two 
hundred  and  five  times  it  refers  to  the  life  and 
behavior  of  anyone,  day  by  day,  and  conveys  a 
religious  meaning;  eighty  times  it  is  used  as  a 
distinct  name  for  religion;  twenty  times  it  refers 
to  God's  manner  of  doing;  and  thirty  times,  or  a 
few   more,   it   refers   to    journeying   in   a   road. 
There  are  about  forty  instances  in  our  English 
Bible  where  this  word  is  rendered  by  such  terms 
as  "journeying,"  and  "custom;"  but  in  all  other 
cases  it  is  rendered  by  the  word  "way." 

95.  The  less  common  Hebrew  terms,  referred 
to  above,  are  used  in  the  Old  Testament,  with  the 


32  THE    ROAD 

meaning  of  the  Road,  path,  highway,  or  mode  of 
life,  about  one  hundred  times.  The  less  common 
Greek  terms,  also  mentioned  above,  are  used  the 
same  as  the  Hebrew  terms,  only  about  ten  times. 
For  the  most  part,  the  one  principal  word,  was 
used  in  the  Hebrew,  and  still  more  is  the  one 
word  for  "  road  "  adhered  to  in  the  Greek.  The 
two  principal  Hebrew  and  Greek  words,  are  used 
in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  together,  about 

EIGHT  HUNDRED  TIMES. 

3-     HUMANITY  TAKES  TO  A  ROAD. 

96.  Families  are  made  into  neighborhoods,  and 
neighborhoods    into     countrymen,    with     com- 
mercial, social,  and  other  community  ties,  by  the 
roads  which  unite  them.     The  Indians  love  their 
trails,  and  they  had  a  net-work  of  them  over  the 
country  before  the  coming  of  the  white  man's 
roads.     Even  the  animals  make  paths,  and  follow 
along  one  after  another  in  them.     Every  pasture 
field   has  these  paths,  and  an  animal  will  go  to 
the  path  in  order  to  pass  from  one  part  of  the 
field  to  another. 

97.  It  is  a  mistaken  pleasure  to  go  with  gun, 
and  to  kill  birds  and  animals,  as  some  do;  but 
there  is  happy  remembrance  from  trips  when  we 
got  into  the  wagon  and  all  took  a  ride  along  the 
roads  where  plants  grow  and  flowers  bloom,  and 
where  at  any  season  of  the  year  something  of 
interest  is  to  be  seen.     The  roads  are  the  parks 
of  all  the  people,  where  they  drive  among  the 
farms   and  commune  with  nature,  and  have  the 
fullest  freedom.     It  is  hard  to  put  fellowship  or 
anything  that  is  pleasant  into  a  graveyard,  but  I 


THE     ROAD  38 

have  planned  that  my  body  shall  be  laid  by  the 
side  of  a  country  road,  where  the  living  will 
always  travel. 

98.  Roads   are   for  everybody,  and   reach  to 
every  human  abode.     Follow  the  road  that  leads 
to  his  home  and  you  will  find  where  every  man 
lives.     As  a  network  they  spread  over  the  coun- 
try, and  they  make  boundary  lines  for  farms  and 
city  blocks.    They  sacredly  set  apart  a  considera- 
ble portion  of  land  for  common  use. 

99.  The  Road  is  the  one  place  on  this  earth 
where  the  lowly  and  the  great  have  equality. 
Money  cannot  buy  a  highway.      The  millionaire 
goes  to  his  home  every  day* by  a  road,  where  no 
amount   of    wealth   can   buy   a   class   privilege. 
Lazarus  had  all  the  rights  of  Dives,  outside  of 
that  rich  man's  gate.1 

100.  The  road,  the  air,  and  the  sunshine,  all 
men  share  in  common.     One  can  travel,  and  can 
breathe  the  breath  of  life,  and  can  use  the  sun- 
light, with  no  monopoly  to  tax  him  for  the  privi- 
leges.     Life,  and  light,  the  road,  and  the  truth, 
best  represent  the  New  Testament  religion.      It 
cannot  be  set  forth  by  terms  which  stand  for 
things   of  limited  use  or  meaning,  or  which  a 
monopoly  may  control,   or  by  the  abstract  or 
metaphysical  terms  which  do  not  concern  actual 
relations. 

101.  The  name  of  an  actual  thing  applied  to 
religion,  a  thing  which  everybody  agrees  with 
everybody   else    to  like    and    to    use,   gives    it 
entrance  to  our  hearts,  by  interests,  associations, 
and  meanings,  such  as  a  school   or  cultus  or 

16:20. 


34  THE     ROAD 

party-forged  name  never  can  have.  One  is  not 
quite  so  lonesome,  when  he  considers  that  the 
road  by  his  own  house  extends  by  his  father's 
house,  a  hundred  miles  away.  The  memories  of 
an  old  home  are  associated  with  the  road,  by  the 
side  of  which  the  old  house  was  built.  The  feel- 
ings are  reverential  when  an  old  man  steps  along 
the  roads  or  paths  where  he  ran  in  childhood. 
He  hunts  for  the  path  along  which  he  went  to 
the  district  school,  the  same  as  the  poor  Indian 
tries  to  follow  a  trail  which  has  been  wiped  out 
by  white  men's  settlements  on  his  former  lands. 

102.  What  a  good,  home-like  name  "Road"  is, 
and  what  a  pity  the  churches  cared  so  little  for 
Paul,  after  he  was  gone,  as  to  let  it  drop  out  of 
use.     And  all  that  it  means  to  be  on  our  journey 
home,  with  the  good  hope  of  safely  reaching 
heaven,  this   name  signifies  now  to   us.      Paul 
went  up  to  heaven  by  this  Road,  and  our  dear, 
sainted  dead  went  up  the  same  Way: 

"The  good  old  Way  which  the  fathers  trod, 
Tie  Way  of  truth  which  leadeth  home  to  God." 

103.  It  might  well  be  supposed  that  God's  own 
name  for  the  true  religion  is  the  one  that  will 
best  describe  it,  and  the  one  that  humanity  will 
best  understand  and  receive.      Take  two  exam- 
ples to  show  the  favor  which  people  have  for  the 
Road  thought  of  life:     "In   His  Steps"  is   the 
widest  circulated  book  of  the  present  time,  and  it 
carries  out  this  idea,  of  following  along  in  a  path 
or  road  after  Jesus.      "Pilgrim's  Progress,"  next 
to  the  Bible,  is  the  book  the  widest  known;  and 
it  is  constructed  about  the  two  ideas  of  a  road 
and  a  man  traveling.     John  Bunyan's  Pilgrim  is 


THE     ROAD  35 

simply   a   New   Testament  picture   of  a  Road- 
Walker. 

104.  Road   is   a  concrete   name;  it  means  a 
thing;    it    stands   for  a   thing   as   extensive   as 
humanity;   it  is  a  thing  everybody  believes  in, 
and  which  nobody  gets  along  without;  it  has  no 
"ism"  to   it;   it  is  so  common  that  it  takes  no 
argument  to  show  that  the  religion  it  stands  for 
is  for  every  day,  and  for  every-day  people,  and 
for  all  people;  it  is  not  school-forged  or  dressed 
up;  it  is   not  divinity-dried    and  ready   to   fly 
away;  it  cannot  be  put  away  in  a  garret,  but  it 
is  always  down  among  people  and  right  where 
they  live  and  walk. 

"The  parish  priest,  of  austerity, 

Climbed  up  in  a  high  church  steeple, 
To  be  nearer  God,  so  that  he  might  hand 

His  word  down  to  the  people. 
In  his  age  God  said,  'Come  down  and  dief 

And  he  cried  out  from  the  steeple, 
'Where  art  Thou,  LORD?'  and  the  LORD  replied, 

'Down  here  among  my  people.' " 

105.  It   is   a  new  argument   for  the    divine 
origin  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  that  it  has  such  a 
name,  a  name  prepared  through  long  centuries. 
There  is  nothing  ecclesiastical  about  it;  but  it  is 
real,  and  brotherly,  and  universal,  and  sensible. 
It  doubtless  appeared  to  the  professional  clergy 
and   philosophers,  like   making   a   divine   thing 
very  common,  to  call  it  "the  Road."    The  school- 
men and  the  warriors  of  the  Church,  and  of  the- 
ology, saw  nothing  in  Paul's  name  agreeable  to 
their  systems,  and  they  set  it  aside.      The  name 
is  not  of  their  kind;  and  they  had  nothing  to  do 
with  its  origin,  or  with  the  origin  of  the  religion 
which  it  describes. 


36  THE     ROAD 

106.  The    Apostle    had    a    road    experience, 
which  helped  to  impress  upon  his  mind  the  name 
for  the  religion  in  which  he  walked.      He  was 
not  in  a  synagogue,  or  in  the  cell  of  a  monk,  but 
traveling  on  a  public  highway  when  he  saw  a 
light  from  heaven.1      He  was  on  a  road  when  he 
came  to  know  "the  Road."      This  idea  was  the 
one  by  which  ever  after  he  viewed  his  religious 
life,  as  such  texts  as  the  following  show:      "So 
that  I  may  accomplish  my  course;"2  "We  also 
might  walk  in  newness  of  life;" 8  "Stretching  for- 
ward to  the  things  which  are  before;"'    "Have 
finished  my  course."       Soon  after  writing  these 
last  words,  at  sixty-three  years  of  age,  this  great 
man  ended  his  faithful  pilgrimage  in  the  Road. 

107.  It  is  an  exceedingly  beautiful  religion 
which  is  described  by  the  use  of  this  word  in  the 
New    Testament,    in    connection    with    other 
descriptive  terms.      There  are  many  such  texts 
in  the  Scriptures.      The  religion  is  called  "The 
Way  of  the   Lord;"6  "The   Way  of  Righteous- 
ness;"7   "The    Way    of    God;"8    "The    Way    of 
Peace;"9    "The    Way    of    Life;"10    "The    Right 
Way/711  "The  Way  of  Salvation;"12  "The  Way  of 
Truth;"13   "Excellent  Way."14     Now,  substitute 
Road  for  Way,  the  thought  of  an  actual,  spiritual 
road,  and  read  the  texts  again  to  see  what  a 
magnificent  view,  a  picture  of  absorbing  interest. 
A  church  is  indeed  a  living  thing,  which  has  the 
relations  in  its  fellowship  of  such  a  religion. 

1  Acts  26:13.  2  Acts  20:24.  3  Romans  6:4. 

4  Phil.  3:13.  5  2  Tim.  4:7.  6  Matt.  3:3. 

7  Matt.  21:32.  8  Matt.  22:16.  9  Luke  1:79. 

10  Acts  2:28.  "  Acts  13:10.  12  Acts  16:17. 

13  2  Peter  2:2.  ulCor.  12:31. 


THE     ROAD  37 

4.     A   WORLD   OF  BRETHREN. 

108.  Religious  life  in  the  scriptures  is  spoken 
of  as  "steps,"  "path,"  "course,"  "race/7  "walk." 
Texts  which  have  these  words,  and  others  which 
give  the  idea  of  pilgrimage,  all  point  to  religion  as 
a  Road,    Consider  some  examples: — "Pilgrims  on 
the  earth;"     "To  the  elect  who  are  sojourners;" 
"He  goeth  before  them,  and  the   sheep  follow 
him;"3  "Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  people;  cast 
ye  up  the  highway;"4  "Ye  are  turned  aside  out  of 
the  way;"5  "We  will  walk  in  the  name  of  the 
LORD  our  God  for  ever  and  ever;7'6  "So  run  that 
ye  may  attain;"7  "Let  us  run  with  patience  the 
race;"8  "Walk  even  as  he  walked;"9  "Straitened 
is  the  way." 10 

109.  A  Christian  who  is  a  Christ,  in  the  New 
Testament  meaning,  is  a  Road-walker,  who  fol- 
lows Jesus  in  doing  the  will  of  God.      Walk,  so 
closely  related  to  Road,  is  a  great  term  with  Paul: 
"Ye  ought  to  walk  to  please  God,  even  as  ye  do 
walk;"11  "As  therefore  ye  received  Christ  Jesus 
the   LORD,   so  walk  in   him;7712    "Walk   by   the 
Spirit;7713  "Walk  in  Love  *  *  *  Walk  as  children 
of  the  light."  M 

110.  In   all  the  time  of  Jesus'  ministry,  he 
walked  from  place  to  place  along  with  his  dis- 
ciples; and  there  is  no  higher  conception  of  the 
disciple  life  now,  than   to  be  walkers  together 


'Heb.  11:13. 

21  Peter  1:1. 

3Jno.  10:4. 

4Isai.  62:10. 

5  MaL  2:8. 

6Micah4:5. 

7  1  Cor.  9:24. 

*Heb.  12:1.  * 

9  1  Jno.  2:6. 

10  Matt.  7:14. 

11  1  Thess.  4:1. 

12  Col.  2:6. 

13  Gal.  5:16. 

uEph.  5:2,8. 

38  THE     ROAD 

with  him  in  the  Road.  To  be  a  walker  puts  us 
in  line  with  common  things,  and  makes  every- 
body feel  at  home  in  being  religious.  Jesus  left 
his  disciples  with  just  such  a  common  religion. 
There  was  nothing  in  it  to  divide  them,  and  it 
took  out  of  them  the  disposition  to  be  divided. 
A  crowd  of  people  going  together  along  a  road  is 
always  good  natured  and  joyful. 

111.  An  abstract  religion  is  against  the  hap- 
piest traits  of  life,  while  to  be  anything  else  than 

food  humored  and  brotherly,  by  the  religion  of 
esus,  is  out  of  place;  the  same  as  an  uncivil  man 
in  a  crowd  on  a  road  is  out  of  place. 

112.  Jesus'    typical    traveler    is    the    Good 
Samaritan,  not  the  priest.1    The  greatest  disciple 
is  none  too  good  to  do  good,  as  the  impressive 
object-lesson  of  the  feet  washing  was  intended 
to  show.2 

113.  With  humility  instead  of  pre-eminence; 
all  doing  service  and  with  no  place  for  titles  and 
distinctive    honors;3   all    brethren  in  a    family 
instead  of  members  of  a  society,  Jesus,  by  means 
of  his  disciples,  showed  the  world  what  religion 
is  as  a  life  and  a  relation. 


1  Luke  10:33. 

2  John  13:4-17;  Matt.  20:25-28. 

114.  3Matt.  23:8-11.  See  Albert  Barnes'  "Notes'*  on  this  passage,  in  his 
Commentary,  who  says  that  Doctor  of  Divinity,  and  such  like  titles,  are  a 
violation  of  Jesus'  teaching.  The  dreadful  record  of  the  chief  priests  in 
the  Gospels,  and  of  the  chief  ecclesiastics  in  history,  should  serve  as  a 
warning  against  self-seeking  by  religious  leaders.  They  show  the  dangers 
of  a  religion  without  humility.  "Be  not  ye  called  Rabbi,"  and  "all  ye  are 
Brethren,"  was  Jesus'  thought,  Matt.  23:8.  How  searching  and  unsparing 
are  Jesus'  reproofs  of  ambitious  and  self-centered  men,  Matt.  ch.  23.  Popery 
in  the  churches,  and  among  the  clergy,  and  in  the  secretaryships  of  church 
Boards,  is  doing  much  harm. 


THE     ROAD  39 

5-    LEADING  POINTS  MANIFESTED  IN  THIS  CHAPTER. 

115.  What   Jesus   did,  unnamed   by  himself 
but  elsewhere  in  the  New  Testament  called  the 
Road,  is  the  simplest,  most  human,  and   most 
satisfactory  declaration  of  universal  religion  and 
of  a  Brotherhood  for  all  mankind  that  the  world 
has  ever  had. 

116.  The  matters  of  interest  relating  to  roads, 
and  the  many  references  to  them  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, make  it  easy  to  understand  and  to  like  a 
religion  which  the  name  Road  fits. 

117.  Road,  with  its  clear  and  good  meaning, 
derived  from  the  nature  of  the  thing  to  which  it 
belongs,  and  which  stands  for  an  actual  thing 
and  not  for  a  system  in  the  realm  of  ideas,  in  its 
spiritual  signification  fits  the  religion  of  Jesus. 

118.  Jesus,   by  his   life   and  teaching,  made 
manifest  God's   highway   of  righteousness   out- 
lined in  the  Old  Testament ;  and  there  he  gath- 
ered about  him  the  doers  of  the  will  of  God,  who 
would  walk  in  his  steps. 


Ill 

MANIFESTATION    OF    GOD'S    PERMANENT 
RELIGION. 

119.  "Men  spake  from  God,  being  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit."  1 

120.  "Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  Law  or  the  Prophets; 
I  came  not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill." 2 

121.  "After  the  Road  which  they  call  a  sect  *  *  *  believing  all  things 
which  are  according  to  the  Law,  and  which  are  written  in  the  Prophets." 3 

122.  "By  the  manifestation  of  the  truth  commending  ourselves  to  every 
man's  conscience." 4 

I.     MANIFESTATION  OF  RELIGION  AS  THE  ROAD. 

123.  There  are  two  ways  of  preaching  religion: 
(a)  to  talk  about  it,  and  (b)  to  show  things  by  its 
light.     A  tailor  tries  his  suit  to  the  body  of  his 
customer,  and  SHOWS  how  well  it   fits;  and  the 
light  of  the  Rontgen  X-rays  shows  a  bullet  in  the 
arm  of  a  wounded  man.5    The  Professor  might 
lecture  eloquently  ABOUT  the  X-rays,  but  the  thing 
of  chief  concern  is  to  find  and  remove  the  bullet. 
The  preaching  of  religion  as  a  cultus,  which  is  the 
way  much  preaching  is  done,  because  it  is  exeget- 
ical,  argumentative,  or  explanatory  of  sectarian 
doctrines,   is   like   lecturing  the  wounded   man 
about  the  X-rays  instead  of  giving  him  relief. 

124.  The  examples  of  the  Prophets,  Jesus  and 
the  Apostles,  show  that  their  method  of  preach- 

1 2  Peter  1:21.  2  Matt.  5:17.  8  Acts  24:14. 

4  2  Cor.  4:2,  5 1  Cor.  4:5. 


THE     ROAD  41 

ing  was  by  manifestation;  that  is,  they  spoke  in 
order  to  show  something,  as  the  X-rays  show 
things.  Compare  the  Scriptures,  and  you  will  find 
that  Paul's  idea  of  preaching  was,  that  things 
should  thus  be  made  manifest.1  Jesus- used  object- 
lessons,  called  parables,  to  show  things. 

125.  The  use  of  NAMES  for  things  is  a  way  of 
manifesting  them.  The  name  Christianity  was 
invented  to  stand  for  a  cult,  and  always  has  given 
to  religion  that  signification.  The  Bible  name  for 
religion  is  that  of  a  real  road,  which  shows  that 
it  is  not  a  cultus  or  an  abstract  thing.  Except 
by  the  care  of  Providence,  it  is  unaccountable 
how  the  name  Road  was  kept  from  ever  being 
used  for  a  cultus.2 


12  Cor.   2:14;  4:2;   Col.4:4;  Titus  1:3. 

126.  2  The  scholarly  "Biblico-Theological  Lexicon,"  by  Prof.  Hermann 
Cremer,  of  the  University  of  Grief swald,  establishes  two  points:  (a)  That 
the  name  Road  is  used  in  the  Bible  many  times  "to  denote  the  ways  which 
God  would  have  men  take;"  and  (b)  IT  NEVER  is  USED  TO  DENOTE  A  RELIG- 
IOUS CULTUS.  Both  these  points  should  receive  close  attention. 

In  Smith's  Unabridged  Bible  Dictionary,  Mr.  Grove  says,  in  the  article 
on  "Way,"  that  there  are  two  texts  which  refer  to  religion  as  a  cultus. 
One  of  these,  Psalm  139:24,  Prof.  Cremer  very  properly  passes  over  in 
silence;  and  of  the  other,  Amos  8:14,  he  says:  "This  passage  in  Amos  is 
too  isolated,  and  does  not  in  the  least  show  that  derec^  (the  Hebrew  word 
for  'road')  by  itself  signifies  a  definite  religious  tendency  or  way."  Never 
in  the  New  Testament  Greek,  and  only  once  in  profane  Greek,  does  he  find 
an  example  of  the  use  of  the  word  road  "for  philosophic  systems  or  schools." 
This  remarkable  evidence  shows  that  "the  Road"  of  Jesus  is  NOT  A  CULTUS; 
that  this  name  never  was  used  for  a  cultus;  and  that  A  NAME  WHICH  MEANS 

A  CULTUS  CANNOT  PROPERLY  BE  USED  FOR  THE  GOSPEL. 

A  religion  is  a  cultus,  which  can  be  counted  as  one  among  other  relig- 
ions of  the  world;  but  God's  religion  contains  ALL  RELIGIOUS  TRUTH  found 
in  ALL  THE  CULTS,  exists  wherever  there  is  truth,  cannot  be  compared  as 
one  of  the  same  class  with  other  religions,  and  has,  the  same  as  sunlight, 
the  meaning  of  universality.  The  sun  is  not  one  light  among  many,  but  it 
stands  by  itself  as  the  ONLY  LIGHT.  See  Paragraphs  47,  129. 


42  THE     ROAD 

127.  By  the  term  Road,  a  name  for  a  real  thing, 
the  true  character  of  Jesus'  religion  is  manifested. 

'The  disciples  were  men  of  the  Road.  Saul 
desired  to  bring  any  of  the  Road  found  at  Damas- 
cus, to  be  judged  at  Jerusalem.  *  *  *  This  was 
the  name  by  which,  in  its  earliest  and  purest  day, 
the  church  called  itself.  *  *  *  It  was  the  Way, 
the  only  Way,  the  Way  of  Life."  J 

128.  Words    in    the   Hebrew  which   at   first 
meant  external  or  natural  objects  or  relations, 
were  afterwards  used  to   express  spiritual  and 
abstract  ideas.    In  some  cases  it  took  a  long  time 
and  many  human  experiences  to  work  a  name  up 
from  its  common  to   its   spiritual   signification. 
The    Prophets    and    poets    did    most   to   adapt 
language  to  the  uses  of  religion.2 


1  Prof.  Stokes,  University  of  Dublin,  in  "Expositor's  Bible,"  Acts  ch.  2. 

129.  2Mr.  Walker,  "Philosophy  of  the  Plan  of  Salvation/'  p.  90, 
describes  at  length  the  changes  in  the  meaning  of  the  word  "holiness"  by 
means  of  the  washings  and  the  purifications  of  the  Tabernacle,  until  it 
was  made  to  convey  the  conception  of  God's  purity  or  holiness.  He  also 
gives  other  examples,  to  show  that  important  terms  of  religion  had  the 
care  of  Providence  in  their  preparation.  See  Paragraph  274. 

The  word  Road  is  used  with  its  spiritual  signification  about  three  hun- 
dred times  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  exam- 
ples of  a  word  providentially  cared  for  and  fitted  for  its  use.  Of  the  use 
of  words  in  the  New  Testament,  Prof.  Robinson  says:  "The  New  Testa- 
ment was  written  by  Hebrews,  aiming  to  express  Hebrew  thoughts,  concep- 
tions, feelings,  in  the  Greek  tongue.  *  *  *  The  language  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  the  later  Greek  language,  as  spoken  by  foreigners  of  the  Hebrew 
stock,  and  applied  by  them  to  subjects  on  which  it  had  never  been  employed 
by  the  native  Greek  writers."  (Preface  to  "Greek  and  English  Lexicon  of 
the  New  Testament.")  The  Hebrew  meaning  of  terms  must  always  be  con- 
sidered by  the  New  Testament  student. 

Here  now  is  a  term  with  a  history,  by  the  way  it  has  been  guarded  by 
Providence  (see  paragraph  126)  and  by  its  use  about  seven  hundred  times 
in  the  Old  Testament.  There  is  no  literal  heathen  Greek  meaning  diifer- 
ent  from  other  meanings,  about  which  to  contend.  It  is  God's  own  name, 
prepared  to  fit  the  religion  proclaimed  by  Jesus.  It  is  not  said  boastfully, 


THE    ROAD  43 

130.  Jesus'    religion   is    remarkable    for    its 
simplicity.    Prof.  Harnack  says  of  it:    "As  a  Gos- 
pel it  has  only  one  aim — the  finding  of  the  living 
God,  the  finding  of  Him  by  every  individual  as  his 
God,  and  the  source  of  strength,  and   joy  and 
peace     *  *  *      his  message  is  simpler  than  the 
churches  would  like  to  think  it;  simpler  but  for 
that  very  reason  sterner,  and  endowed  with   a 
greater  claim  to  universality/'1     The  name  Road 
is    also    remarkable    for   its   simplicity,   and  in 
this  particular  it  exactly  expresses  the  religion. 
It  is  not  a  high-sounding,  stilted,    theological, 
scholastic,  ecclesiastical,  sacramental  name.     It 
is  of  the  people,  by  the  people  and  for  the  people. 
So  far  as  we  know,  the  term  road  was  the  only 
one  two  thousand  years  ago,  which  was  fitted  to 
be  the  name  for  Jesus'  religion;  and  it  remains 
true  still  that  it  is  the  only  exact,  clean-cut  name. 

2.    MANIFESTATION  OF  RELIGION  IN  THE  LAW  OF  MOSES. 

131.  The  Apostle  John  understood  Moses'  Law, 
as  a  religious  cultus, 2  which  was  for  one  little 
nation,  separated  from  others  by  the  lay  of  their 
country  and  by  race. 3    Its  foundation  principles 
were  love  to  God  and  love  to  man  and  righteous - 

but  with  sorrow,  that  this  book,  so  far  as  its  author  knows,  is  the  first  to 
give  this  term  its  place,  and  to  interpret  the  religion  of  which  it  is  the 
name  by  the  light  of  its  meaning.  It  exists  as  a  term  in  all  languages,  and 
everywhere  is  readily  understood,  because  roads  as  things  exist  wherever 
there  are  men;  and  it  cannot  be  shut  off  from  standing  for  all  there  is  of 
religion  in  all  cults,  or  for  all  the  Light  and  Life  given  by  the  universal 
Father  to  mankind. 

1  "What  is  Christianity?"  pp.  135,  154,  205. 

2  See  Paragraph  162  for  different  meanings  of  the  term  "law." 

3  It  is  a  clean-cut  cuitus  and  non-cultus  distinction  which  is  made  in 
John  1:17.    See  Paragraphs  47,  126. 


44  THE     ROAD 

ness;1  and  its  ceremonialism,  arranged  for  an 
undeveloped  people,  served  as  object-lessons. 
Along  with  other  uses  of  sacrifices,  were  wisely- 
planned  provisions  for  character  building  and 
for  the  most  healthful  use  of  flesh  food.  The  ani- 
mals were  returned  by  the  priests  to  the  people 
who  brought  them,  nicely  dressed  by  religious 
rules,  to  be  eaten  with  a  sense  of  the  interest 
which  their  heavenly  Father  took  in  their  daily 
food.  The  Jews  were  light  eaters  of  meat. 

182.  Oriental  people,  generally,  associated 
religion  with  eating.  By  an  oversight  of  this 
thought,  we  cannot  understand  the  daily  sacrifi- 
ces, the  Lord's  Supper,  or  the  prayer — uGive  us 
this  day  our  daily  bread." 

133.  What  the  Hebrews  lost  when  the  forty- 
years  daily  supply  of  manna  was  stopped,  they 
could  not  afford  to  lose;  and  the  same  spiritual 
culture  of  DEPENDENCE  UPON  GOD  was  provided  for, 

BY  THE  OBJECT-LESSON  TRAINING  OF  THE  DAILY  SAC- 
RIFICES. 2  The  institution  was  a  prayer  of  a  wor- 
shiping man,  in  daily  "conscious  dependence 
upon  God  for  the  forgiveness  of  sins  and  the  sup- 
ply of  all  his  wants. 

135.     These  prayers  of  sacrifices  were  changed 
by  the  Prophets  and  the  Gospel  to  oral  supplica- 

1  Matt.  7:12;  22:40. 

134.  2  The  thought  of  the  sacrifices,  in  their  higher  meaning,  is  given 
in  the  following  Scripture  texts:     "The  LORD  delights  not  in  the  blood  of 
bulls  or  lambs  or  goats,"  Isaiah  1:11;  "The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken 
spirit  and  a  contrite  heart,"  Psalms  51:17;  "To  do  justice  and  judgment  is 
more  acceptable  to  the  LORD  than  sacrifice,"  Prov.  21:3;  "To  do  good  and 
to  communicate,  forget  not;  for  with  such  sacrifices  God  is  well  pleased," 
Heb.  13:16;  "Every  creature  of  God  is  good,  if  it  be  received  with  thanks- 
giving,"   1   Tim.  4:4;  "Giving   thanks  always  for  all  things,"   Eph.   5:20. 
Paragraph  253. 


THE     ROAD  45 

tions,  without  a  priest,  and  to  spiritual  services 
with  daily  and  hourly  thanksgiving  and  trust. 
Counting  the  peace  offerings  and  meat  offerings 
as  one,  the  sacrifices  involved  the  three  essential 
exercises  or  ingredients  of  prayer:  (a)  the  sin- 
offerings  involved  the  spiritual  exercises  of 
REPENTANCE;  (b)  the  burnt-offerings  involved  the 
spiritual  exercises  of  surrender  or  SELF-YIELDING 
to  God;  (c)  the  peace  offerings  involved  the  spir- 
itual exercises  of  grateful  fellowship  and  THANKS- 
GIVING. The  system  of  sacrifices  was  thus  com- 
plete from  its  spiritual  side,  and  as  prayer  met 
the  need  of  man.1 

137.  Speculations  as  to  the  expiatory  meaning 
of  the  sacrifices,  have  been  of  doubtful  benefit; 
but  it  is  a  fact  of  great  meaning  that  when  Jesus, 
the  Bread  of  Life  and  the  Lamb  of  God,  was  sent 
to  the  world,  the  disappearance  forever  of  all 
blood-sacrifice  took  place  within  a  very  brief 
period. 

136.  Sacrifices  were  not  regularly  practiced  in  the  life- time  of  Moses,  or 
while  there  was  a  daily  supply  of  manna,  Jer.  7:22,  23.  The  origin  of 
sacrifice  is  a  disputed  question;  and  the  expiatory  idea  connected  with  sac- 
rifice, as  we  now  understand  it,  and  which  is  dependent  upon  the  typical 
meaning  of  the  sacrifices,  was  practically  unknown  to  the  Hebrews.  The 
idea  of  expiation  appears  but  gradually  in  the  Scriptures.  We  would  know 
little  about  it  if  it  were  not  for  the  Epistles,  and  especially  for  the  book  of 
Hebrews.  To  treat  the  sacrificial  system  of  the  Mosaic  Law  truthfully,  it 
must  be  considered  on  a  lower  plane  than  that  of  the  ideas  of  the  New 
Testament.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  know  now  that  whatever  there  was  of 
religious  need  for  sacrifices,  is  provided  for  and  settled  by  Jesus,  and  that 
his  sacrifice  of  himself  forever  put  an  end  to  ail  other  sacrifices.  Compare 
Heb.  9:14,  28;  Exod.  16:35;  Josh.  5:12;  8:31;  Jno.  6:33;  Smith's 
Bible  Dictionary,  vol.  iv,  p.  2771;  Neander's  "Planting  of  Christianity,"  vol. 
I,  p.  128. 

The  excessive  use  of  such  words  as  "atonement,"  "expiation,"  "saved 
by  blood,"  etc.,  is  not  justified  by  the  example  of  the  New  Testament.  The 
important  truth  they  are  meant  to  convey,  where  they  are  not  used  to 


46  THE     ROAD 

138.  The  number  of  "  peace-offering "  ani- 
mals used  in  the  sacrifices  at  the  dedication  of 
the  temple,  was  Solomon's  provision  of  food  for 
the  great  number  of  people  present  at  that  long 
festival.1  Peace-offerings,  and  many  of  the  sacri- 
fices were  peace-offerings  and  meat  offerings, 
meant  to  the  extremely  social  Hebrew  people  a 
delightful,  festive  occasion  with  plenty  to  eat; 
and  to  attendance  at  their  many  feasts  and  festi- 
vals, they  gave  what  to  us  seems  an  excessive 
amount  of  time.  By  connecting  the  food  which 
they  ate  with  the  services  of  religion,  and  by 
distinguishing  animals  as  clean  and  unclean, 
together  with  the  other  provisions  of  care  and 
cleanliness  in  daily  life,  the  Law  of  Moses,  from 
the  points  of  view  now  in  mind,  is  a  wise,  relig- 
ious, hygienic,  sanitary  and  social  provision. 

139.  The  sociological  features  of  the  Law  of 
Moses,  show  it  to  have  been  the  best  system  of 
fair  dealing,  and  the  best  anti-monopoly  system 
ever  devised.  Legislation  was  in  the  interest  of 
the  poor  and  weak,  to  protect  them  against  the 
rich  and  strong.  The  Sabbath  law  lay  at  the  basis 


cover  ignorance,  should  be  delivered  in  carefully  selected  language  and  by 
the  right  use  of  these  terms.  If  necessary,  it  should  be  explained  that 
"blood"  stands  for  life  (Gen.  9:4;  Lev.  17:11;14;  Deut.  12:23);  that  the 
word  atonement  is  not  in  the  New  Testament,  but  "reconciliation"  (Rom. 
5:11,  R.  V.  2  Cor.  5:18;19);  that  expiation  carries  in  it  the  fact  that  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  pure  and  just  in  behalf  of  others  are  the  saving  element  in  the  world's 
history  (1  Jno.  3:16).  Paul,  for  example,  in  the  important  letters  to  the 
Thessalonians,  alludes,  but  once,  in  simple  language,  to  Christ's  death  as  the 
procuring  means  of  salvation,  1  Thess.  5:10;  and  the  New  Testament,  gen- 
erally, keeps  in  the  background  that  part  of  redemption  which  belongs 
exclusively  to  God  and  his  own  plan,  and  which  some  men  presume  to  know 
so  much  about. 

1 1  Kings  8:63-66. 


THE    ROAD  47 

of  the  wise  and  beneficent  provisions  of  a  seventh 
month,1  a  seventh  year,  and  the  year  of  jubilee.2 

140.  The   Sabbath   was  an  INSTITUTION,   and 
never  should  be  looked  upon  merely  as  a  day  of 
the  week.     No  religious  man,  or  laboring  man, 
or  patriot,  can  afford  to  be  a  Sabbath-breaker,  or 
to  disregard  the  observance  of  this  humanitarian 
and  civilizing  institution.     Every  man  ought  to 
stand,    always    and    everywhere,    for     Sabbath 
observance.     Not  as  a  day  of  the  week  but  as  an 
institution,  it  is  a  patriotic  duty  to  keep  it.3 

141.  The  seventh  month  was  not  character- 
ized by  an  entire  cessation  from  labor;  but  it  was 
a  time  of  religious  feasts,  and  a  holiday  season  for 
the  people.    The  seventh  year  was  a  year  of  rest. 
By  it,  the  greed  of  avaricious  men  was  checked; 
and  rights  were  given  to  dependent  people  that 
otherwise  they  would  not  have  had.    It  is  explic- 
itly stated  that  a  reason  for  its  appointment  was, 
"that  the  poor  of  the   people  may   eat."     The 
vineyards  and  olive  yards  continued  to  bear  fruit 
and  there  was  always  quite  a  harvest  in  the  grain 
fields,  the  seed  of  which  was  scattered  while  gath- 
ering the  crops  of  the  previous  year. 

142.  The  ownership  of  all  this  was  vested  in 
the  manservant,  the   maidservant,  the  stranger; 
and  what  they  left,  the  beasts  of  the  field  were  to 
be  permitted  to  eat.     By  these  laws,   the  rich 
Hebrew  was  debarred  from  the  thought  of  the 
absolute  ownership  of  the  land.     No  poor  debtor 
was  required  to  make  any  payment  this  seventh 

1  Ex.  20:9,  10. 

2  Compare  Lev.  16:29-31;  Ed.  23:9-13;  Lev.  25:2-37;  Deut.  15:7-11. 

3  Matt.  12:7. 


48  THE     ROAD 

year;"and  if  he  was  not  able  to  pay  the  debt  at  the 
close  of  the  sixth  year,  it  is  a  question  whether  it 
was  not  forever  cancelled.  Hebrew  bond-ser- 
vants, who  could  sell  or  hire  themselves  for  a 
term  of  six  years,  were  released  when  a  seventh 
year  from  the  beginning  of  their  service  came 
around. 

143.  The  fiftieth  or  jubilee  year,  was  a  part 
of  this  same    Sabbatical   system.     Then   every 
unfortunate  person  had  a  chance  to  become  a  land 
owner,  under  the  apportionment  originally  made 
by  Joshua.     Sales  of  land  could  only  be  made  for 
the  time  period  reaching  up  to  jubilee  year,  when 
titles  all  returned  to  the  original  families.     All 
servants  had  their  freedom,  debts  were  cancelled 
and  all  had  homes  of  their  own,  and,  in   their 
days  of  obedience  to  God,  in  all  the  world  THERE 
WAS  NOT  A  HAPPIER  PEOPLE.  The  spontaneous  pro- 
ductions of  the  earth,  for  both  the  forty-ninth 
and  this  fiftieth  year  went  to  the  poor,  and  they 
were  thus  helped  to  start  in  business  for  them- 
selves. 

144.  There  was  no  chance  to  form  monopolies, 
no  land-grabbing,  and  no  centralization  of  wealth, 
no  hard   oppression. l     Men,  like  Samuel,   who 
embodied  the  spirit  and  principles  of  the  Law  in 
their  lives,  came  to  have  a  high  standard  of  char- 
acter. 


145.  l  There  are  severities  and  regulations  in  the  Law  which  had  an  appli- 
cation to  the  undeveloped  people  and  the  times;  and  which  belong  to  the 
same  class  with  the  imprecatory  Psalms,  and  David's  death-bed  speech. 
Jesus  put  away  this  spirit,  when  he  said:  "I  say  unto  you,  resist  not  him 
that  is  evil,"  Matt.  5:39.  But  he  did  not  put  away  those  principles  which 
rid  the  country  of  Israel  of  swearing,  stealing,  drunkenness,  gambling  hells, 
and  other  evil  things  which  exist  in  Christendom. 


THE     ROAD  49 

3.     MANIFESTATION  OF  RELIGION  IN  THE  PROPHETS. 

146.  The  Prophets  spoke  in  the  name  of  the 
LORD,  and  made  clear  the  ethics  and  spirituality 
of  religion.     They  preached  repentance   of  sin, 
exalted  and  glorified  holiness,  and  set  aside  forms, 
sacraments,  and  ecclesiasticisni.     In  their  spirit- 
ual ground-work,  the  Law  the  Prophets  and  the 
Gospel    are    the    same    eternal     and    universal 
religion. 

147.  The  Prophet  Micah  is  an  example  of  one 
of   these    Prophet   reformers,  who  defined  the 
religion  and  Kingdom  of  the  Messiah:     "  Out  of 
Zion  shall  go  forth  the  Law  and  the  word  of  the 
LORD  from  Jerusalem.     He  shall  judge  between 
many  peoples,  and  shall  remove  strong  nations 
afar  off;  and  they  shall  beat  their  swords  into 
plowshares,  and  their  spears  into  pruning  hooks; 
nation  shall  not  lift   up  sword    against   nation, 
neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more."  l    The 
facts  of  Christian  history  in  this  respect  sadly 
witness  to  its  apostacy  from  Jesus.     The  wicked- 
ness of  a  nation  goes  upon  record  in  history  by 
its  wars. 

148.  The  blessed  sociological  conditions,  free- 
dom from  war  and  strife,  and  liberality  and  love 
in  religion,  are  thus  described  by  Micah:     "  They 
shall  sit  every  man  under  his  vine  and  under  his 
fig  tree;  and  none  shall  make  them  afraid.     All 
the  people  will  walk  every  one  in  the  name  of  his 
god,  and  we  will  walk  in  the  name  of  the  LORD 
oar  God  forever  and  ever." 

.  149.     He    clearly    saw    that  it>  was   no    new 
religion  that  he  was  teaching,  but  the  ever-exist- 

1  Isai.  2:4;  11:6-10  is  the  same  strong  teaching  of  peace. 


50  THE     ROAD 

ent,  universal,  and  only  Road  of  God:  "  Whose 
goings  forth  have  been  from  of  old,  from  everlast- 
ing." It  is  impossible  to  express,  the  practice  of 
God's  permanent  religion  in  more  forcible  words 
than  the  following:  "  Wherewith  shall  I  come 
before  the  LORD,  and  bow  myself  before  the  high 
God?  Shall  I  come  before  him  with  burnt  offer- 
ings, with  calves  a  year  old?  Will  the  LORD  be 
pleased  with  thousands  of  rams,  or  with  ten 
thousand  rivers  of  oil?  *  *  *  He  hath  showed 
thee,  0  man,  what  is  good,  and  what  doth  the 
LORD  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love 
mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God?771 

150.  The  teachings  of  the  other  Prophets  are 
along  the  same  line,  as  the  following  examples 
show:  "  I  hate,  I  despise  your  feasts,  and  I  will 
take  no  delight  in  your  solemn  assemblies.  Yea, 
though  you  offer  me  your  burnt  offerings,  I  will 
not  accept  of  them;  neither  will  I  regard  the 
peace  offerings  of  your  fat  beasts.  Take  thou 
away  from  me  the  noise  of  thy  songs,  for  I  will 
not  hear  the  melody  of  thy  viols.  But  let  judg- 
ment roll  down  as  waters,  and  righteousness  as 
a  mighty  stream."1  I  desired  mercy  and  not  sac- 
rifice, and  the  knowledge  of  God  more  than  burnt 
offerings."  "  These  are  the  things  that  ye  shall 
do;  speak  ye  every  man  the  truth  with  his  neigh- 
bor; execute  the  judgment  of  truth  and  peace  in 
your  gates;  and  let  none  of  you  imagine  evil  in 
your  hearts  against  his  neighbor;  and  love  no 
false  oath;  for  all  these  are  things  that  I  hate, 


4:2-5;  5:2;  6:6-8. 
2  Amos  5:21-24. 
3HoseaG:6. 


THE     ROAD  51 

saith  the  LORD/'  l  "  They  shall  take  away  all  the 
detestable  things  and  all  the  abominations,  and  I 
will  give  them  one  heart,  and  I  will  put  a  new 
spirit  within  you;  and  I  will  take  away  the  stony 
heart  out  of  your  flesh,  and  will  give  them  an 
heart  of  flesh,  that  they  may  walk  in  my  statutes 
and  keep  mine  ordinances  and  do  them."  "  I 
will  give  them  one  heart  and  one  way.  *  *  *  For 
I  spake  not  unto  your  fathers,  nor  commanded 
them  in  the  day  that  I  brought  them  out  of  the 
land  of  Egypt,  concerning  the  burnt  offerings  or 
sacrifices;  but  this  I  commanded  them  saying: 
Hearken  unto  my  voice,  and  I  will  be  your  God, 
and  ye  shall  be  my  people,  and  walk  ye  in  all  the 
Way  that  I  commanded  you,  that  it  may  be  well 
with  you."3 

151.  No   one   of  the   sixteen   Old   Testament 
Prophets  is  quoted  so  often  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  Isaiah.     As  the  others  speak,  so  does  he 
speak  against  war,  injustice,  disobedience  to  God, 
and  all  of  the  apostacies  of  religion.     He  is  too 
lengthy  to  quote,  and  the  reader  should  turn  to 
his  book  and  read. 4 

152.  Because  of  those  parts  of  their  books  which 
refer  to  local  matters,  and  which  do  not  interest 
us  now,  many  have  not  even  read  attentively  the 
writings  of  these  great  men.   Among  other  things 
they  unite  in  teaching  as  follows:  • 

(a)     That  God  reigns,  and  has  not  taken  his 
hand  off  the  earth;  and  his  care  for  the  righteous 

1Zech.  8;16,  17. 
2Ezek.  11:19,20. 

3  Jer.  7:22,  23;  12:17;  31:33;  32:17-19,  39. 

4  Isaiah  1:11-17;  2:4,  5;  11:1-10;  35:8-10;  53:1-12;  58:1-14;  61:1-11; 
6S:16-2i. 


52  THE     ROAD 

and  his  punishment  of  the  wicked,  shall  be  made 
to  appear. 

(b)  That  wrong  doers  must  repent,  and  seek 
forgiveness  from  a  merciful  God;  and  follow  the 
truth,  and  do  the  things  of  righteousness. 

(c)  That  there  is  hope  for  the  future;  for  the 
kingdom  of  God,  in  Messiah's  beneficent  reign, 
will  come  with  salvation   and   blessings  to   all 
mankind. 

(d)  That  in  all  the  circumstances  of  men,  God 
adapts  the  requirements  of  worship  to  lit  their 
needs;  and  these  needs  all  center  in  a  spiritual 
religion,  without  sacrifices  or  any  of  the  formal- 
ities of  sacramentalism. 

153.  It  is  thus  manifested  by  the  Law  and  the 
Prophets  that  the  mighty  word  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  righteousness,  and  the  crowning  truth  is 
the  holiness  of  God.     It  names  and  condemns  the 
sins  of  men  without  partiality;  and  it  makes  one 
hate  what  God  hates.     The  earnest  reader  will  be 
led  to  join  with  Paul  in  saying:    "Believing  all 
things  which  are  written  in  the  Law  and  in  the 
Prophets."     It  is  a  fact  of  biography,  that   sin- 
cere and  earnest  and  strong  men  like  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. 1 

4.     LEADING  POINTS  MADE  MANIFEST  IN  THIS  CHAPTER. 

154.  In  manifesting  himself  and  his  religion 
to  mankind,  God  used  language,  forms  of  worship, 
and  institutions;  as  later,  he  sent  his  Son,  made 
flesh,  with  likeness   to  the  Father  so  that  we 
might  in  him  see  the  Father. 

1  Acts  24:14.  See  the  tract  of  the  American  Tract  Society,  "Tender- 
ness of  the  Old  Testament  Gospel,"  compiled  by  one  who  was  led  to  its 
preparation  by  his  surprise  at  finding  such  a  rich  mine  of  helpful  truth. 


THE    ROAD  53 

155.  The  universal  instinct  of  mankind   for 
roads,  was  directed  into  a  spiritual  conception  of 
the  one,  ever-existent,  and  universal  religion. 

156.  The  Law  of  Moses  had  the  limitations  of 
a  cultus,   and   was   not  a  world  but   a  national 
religion;  but  its  forms  and  institutions  had  such 
high  uses  and  Divine  meanings,  that  they  were 
not  dependent  upon  the  cultus  spirit  for  force  but 
hung  upon  love  to  God  and  to  man. 

157.  The   Prophets   spoke  as  guided  by  the 
Spirit  of  God.     They  exalted  the  permanent  and 
put  out  of  sight  the  cultus  tendencies  of  Moses7 
religion.      Jesus    accepted    their    teachings    of 
religion  without  any  modifications. 

158.  What  God  did  by  the  Old  Testament  and 
its  religion,  and  by  his  Prophets,  to  prepare  man- 
kind to  know  and  receive  Jesus,  and  to  under- 
stand the  Road,  is  remarkable  as  to  its  fullness 
and  explicitness. 


IV 

THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  PRESENT 
AND  FUTURE. 

159.  "Stand  ye  in  the  ways  and  see,  and  ask  for  the  old  paths,  where 
is  the  good  way,  and  walk  therein,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  for  your  souls." l 

160.  "Till  heaven  and  earth  pass  away,  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no 
wise  pass  away  from  the  Law,  till  all  things  be  accomplished." 2 

161.  "Love  the  LORD  thy  God  *  *  *  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself  *  *  * 
On  these  two  commandments  hangeth  the  whole  Law,  and  the  Prophets."  3 

I.     QUESTIONS  IN  THE   STUDY   OF   RELIGION. 

163,  What  is  the  permanent  religion  of  the 
world;  and  can  a  man  find  it  when  he  seeks  it, 
and  know  it  when  he  sees  it?  When  God's  per- 
manent religion  prevails,  how  much  of  present 
Christianity  will  it  contain?  Can  the  ever- 
existent  religion  be  separated,  as  Jesus  in  his 
life  time  separated  it  from  all  existing  adultera- 
tions? 

Many  people  are  asking  these  questions,  who 
are  kept  by  the  serious  meaning  of  existence  from 
thoughtlessly  giving  themselves  to  build  up  sects, 
opinions,  ordinances,  and  the  other  institutions 

1  Jer.  6:16. 

2  Matt.  5:18. 

162.  3Matt.  22:37-40.     "Law"  is  used  in  the  New  Testament  (a)  for 
the  Law  of  Moses;  or  (b)  for  the  letter  and  ordinances  of  the  Mosaic  Law; 
or  (c)  for  a  power  which  acts  on  the  will  of  man  by  external  motives;  or 
(d)  for  the  ORIGINAL,  ETERNAL,  AND  SPIRITUAL  RELIGION  OF  GOD,  embodied 
in  the  living  truth  believed  on  and  taught  by  the  Patriarchs,  Moses,  the 
Prophets  and  Jesus.     "Prophets"  is  used  for  the  books  of  the  sixteen 
Prophets  of  the  Old  Testament,  or  for  their  teaching. 


THE    ROAD  55 

of  ecclesiasticism.  Religion  as  it  is,  does  not 
make  strong  enough  appeal  to  win  many  people 
and  they  do  not  look  deeper  than  what  they  see. 
Business  sense  instructs  a  man  that  God  is  not 
wasteful;  and  that  it  is  an  abomination  in  his 
sight  to  operate  many  churches  where  one  would 
better  serve  his  Kingdom  and  the  Brotherhood.1 
165.  The  way  to  get  back  to  Jesus,  is  for  every 
church  m'ember  to  be  faithful  in  church  attend- 
ance and  the  worship  of  God;  but  he  must  clean 
his  heart  of  sectarianism  arid  consider  himself 
one  of  the  Community  of  Brethren.  Then  in  time 
the  people  will  see  the  folly  of  keeping  up  the 
useless  number  of  congregations  in  the  commun- 
ity, and  will  join  in  having  one  great  meeting- 
house for  the  simple  purposes  of  Brotherhood 
and  Worship.2 


164.  1  It  is  impossible  to  get  back  to  Jesus  unless  the  members  of  all 
the  churches  come  to  regard  each  other  as  one  Brotherhood.  "Brethren," 
adelphoi,  was  the  common  name  by  which  the  first  disciples  called  them- 
selves. Its  use  was  begun  by  Jesus,  and  it  is  used  by  all  of  the  Apostles. 
"All  ye  are  Brethren,"  said  Jesus,  Matt.  23:8.  Eight  times  he  used  the 
terms,  "brother"  or  "brethren"  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  they  passed 
into  common  use  after  that.  These  terms  are  used  for  disciples  in  the  Acts 
and  the  Epistles  about  two  hundred  and  forty  times.  All  disciples  are  sim- 
ply a  Brotherhood. 

166.  2What  enthusiasm  would  result  from  such  great  Tabernacle 
meetings.  Naturally  the  workers  would  divide  into  companies,  like  the 
priests  in  the  services  of  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem,  and  each  day  in  the  week 
a  company  would  take  its  turn  to  conduct  a  service.  Sunday  worship  would 
be  a  great  RALLY  of  all  the  people.  This  would  be  the  application  of  the 
same  business  sense  to  religion  that  now  exists  in  the  work  of  education, 
where  a  school  board  and  a  superintendent  manage  with  satisfaction,  econ- 
omy and  efficiency.  There  is  no  plan  through  which  the  devil  can  get  in 
more  work  than  the  one  which  exists  now.  It  will  be  easy  to  make  the  glo- 
rious change,  if  the  people  will  put  sectarianism  out  of  their  hearts,  break 
away  from  sectarian  preachers  and  managers,  and  rally  about  Jesus. 
Jesus  never  started  them,  and  Paul,  Peter  and  John  never  planted  and  died 


56  THB    EOAD 

167.  On  account  of  the  evils  in  existing  Chris- 
tianity   it    is    impossible    for    it,  except    it*  be 
reformed,  to  be  the  religion  of  the  future  King- 
dom  of  God  on   earth.     The  Prophets   give  no 
representation  of  the  universal  Kingdom  of  Mes- 
siah, such  as  Christianity  has  been  and  is.  It  car- 
ries a  great  civilization,  but  it  is  no  greater,  when 
we  consider  the  opportunities  by  the  natural  pro- 
gress of  knowledge,  the  growth  of  measures  of 
humane   progress    throughout    the    world,    the 
increase  of  inventions,  and  the   opening   up   of 
new  lands,  than  the  civilization  of  the  better  days 
of  Greece  and  Rome.    We  entered  upon  a  goodly 
inheritance  from  Moses,  and  from  the  Prophets, 
and  from  Jesus,  in  legal  and  humanitarian  prin- 
ciples; l  but  our  chief  inheritance  was  the  policies 
of  heathen  Eome. 2      These  things  we  have  used. 

for  these  churches  of  Christendom.     They  represent  old,  dead,  or  foolish 
controversies.     The  system  is  bad  for  men  and  abominable  to  God. 

"  The  organization  which  might  be  supposed  to  most  expressly  represent 
its  truths,  has  been  most  opposed  to  Jesus'  religion  in  life  and  action.  In 
the  course  of  history,  the  skeptics,  in  the  matters  of  mercy  and  justice, 
have  often  been  nearer  Christ  than  professed  believers.  Brace's  "Gesta 
Christi."  p.  2;  Lecky's  "History  of  European  Morals,"  Vol.  II,  ch.  IV;  Matt. 
12:25. 

168.  l  There  was  a  spirit  of  caste  in  Rome,  and  cruelty  toward  men  of 
humble  origin,  which  has  been  radically  changed  by  the  spirit  of  the  Bible 
working  in  our  free  institutions,  and  by  the  advance  of  humane  spirit  in 
the  world.      Not  everything  is  bad  in  any  human  institution.     Many  bene- 
fits have  come  to  civil  government  from  the  Church.     See  Matthews'  "Bible 
and  Civil  Government; "  Lecky's  Works;  et  alii. 

169.  2  In  the  "Introduction"  to  his  "History  of  Dogma,"  Prof.  Harnack 
says  of  the  composition  of  Christianity:     "Separated  from  Judaism,  nay, 
even  before  that  separation,  the  Christian  religion  came  in  contact  with  the 
Roman  world  and  with  a  culture  which  had  already  mastered  the  world,  viz., 
the  Greek.     The  Christian  Church  and  its  doctrine  were  developed  within 
the  Roman  world  and  Greek  culture.  *  *  The  attempts  at  deducing  the  gene- 
sis of  the  Church's  doctrinal  system  from  the  theology  of  Paul,  or  from  com- 
promises between  Apostolic  doctrinal  ideas,  will  always  miscarry. 


THE     ROAD  57 

170.  The  Fathers  of  the  post-apostolic  Church 
were  educated  not  in  Jewish  or  Christian  schools, 
but  by  the  better  qualified  Pagan  teachers.  At 
this  formative  period  of  the  Church,  it  was  an 
open  question  whether  the  truth  in  Christianity 
had  not  been  previously  taught  by  the  ancient 
philosophers.  The  Greek  spirit  of  speculation 
and  of  argument  held  sway;  and  from  that  time 
onwrard  to  the  present,  church  history  is  a  record 
of  theological  disputes. l 

172.  Christianity  not  only  has  ingredients  of 
Grseco-Roman  religion,  but  also  of  its  civiliza- 
tion.2 Commercialism,  land-grabbing,  militarism, 


The  great  mass  of  the  earliest  Gentile  Christians  became  Christians  because 
they  perceived  in  the  Gospel  the  sure  tidings  of  the  benefits  and  obligations 
which  they  had  already  sought  in  the  fusion  of  the  Jewish  and  the  Greek 
elements.  *  *  *  The  Jewish,  that  is,  the  Old  Testament  element,  divested 
of  its  national  peculiarity,  has  remained  the  basis  of  Christendom.  It  has 
saturated  this  element  with  the  Greek  spirit.  *  *  *  Besides  the  Greek, 
there  is  no  mistaking  the  special  influence  of  Romish  ideas  and  customs 
upon  the  Christian  Church.  *  *  *  BY  THE  POWER  OF  HER  CONSTITUTION 
and  the  EARNESTNESS  AND  CONSISTENCY  OF  HER  POLICY,  ROME,  A  SECOND 
TIME,  STEP  BY  STEP,  CONQUERED  THE  WORLD,  BUT  THIS  TIME  THE  CHRISTIAN 
WORLD.  *  *  *  CONSEQUENTLY  IN  THE  COMPLETED  CHURCH  WE  FIND 

AGAIN  THE  PHILOSOPHIC  SCHOOLS  and  the  ROMAN  EMPIRE." 

171.  l  It  must  not  be  inferred  that  there  was  no  good  in  the  religion 
of  these  Pagans,  or  in  philosophy,  or  in  the  paganized  Christianity.  The 
last  was  the  best  of  them  all,  but  all  of  them  had  some  truth  and  light. 
The  philosophers  labored  under  the  great  difficulty,  that  they  had  little 
influence  in  matters  of  morals.  The  Church  made  of  the  writings  of  the 
Apostles  A  BOOK;  and,  with  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  in  hand,  the  clergy 
at  times  did  some  noble  work  in  the  improvement  of  Roman  morals. 
Mosheim's  "Ecclesiastical  History,"  Vol.  1,  p.  19,  36,  307,  308;  Gieseler's 
"Church  History,"  Vol.  1,  p.  276,  277,  453,  et  alii. 

173.  2  There  are  three  distinct  things  which  Rome  fixed  as  measures 
and  forces  in  the  Church  and  in  Christian  civilization:  (a)  A  system  and 
LITERATURE  OF  LAW,  (b)  the  practice  of  control  by  LEGISLATION,  (c)  the 
saoredness  attached  to  INSTITUTIONS.  The  great  Rugby  teacher  says: 
"The  most  striking  point  in  the  character  of  the  Romans,  and  that  which 
has  so  permanently  influenced  the  condition  of  mankind,  was  their  love  of 


58  THE    ROAD 

jursiprudence,  and  in  large  part  secular  educa- 
tion, are  copied  from  ancient  Rome.1  These 
heathen  did  not  have  any  liquor  traffic  or  saloon 
system;  and  a  few  other  things  they  did  not 
have,  which  help  along  Christian  "civilization.'' 

175.  Land  ownership,  the  only  effectual  way 
ever  devised  to  promote  among  the  common  peo- 
ple of  labor,  self-respect,  independence,  habits  of 
industry,  habits  of  sobriety,  and  domestic  riches 
and  happiness,  and  which  was  so  well  provided 
for  by  Moses  Laws  for  Israel,  is  ignored  in  Chris- 
tendom, the  same  as  if  we  had  no  Bible  and  knew 
only  the  way  of  Pagan  Rome.2 

INSTITUTIONS  and  of  order,"  Arnold's  "History  of  Rome,"  p.  36.  The  great 
author,  Sir  Henry  Maine,  says:  "LAW  was  the  only  literature  of  the 
Romans  which  has  any  claim  to  originality;  and  it  is  the  only  part  which  has 
profoundly  influenced  modern  thought.  *  *  *  The  Roman  Empire  must 
be  placed  in  a  totally  different  class  from  the  Oriental  despotisms,  ancient 
and  modern,  and  even  from  the  famous  Greek  Empire.  All  these  last  were  tax- 
taking  empires,  which  exercised  little  or  no  interference  in  the  customs  of 
village-communities  or  tribes.  But  the  Roman  Empire,  while  it  was  a  tax- 
taking,  was  also  a  LEGISLATING  empire.  It  crushed  out  local  customs,  and 
substituted  for  them  institutions  of  its  own.  Through  its  LEGISLATION 
alone  it  effected  a  great  interruption  in  the  history  of  a  large  part  of  man- 
kind." "Early  History  of  Institutions,"  p.  308,  330.  These  three  features 
are  all  present  in  the  civilization  of  Christendom  and  are  now  working  as 
mightily  as  they  did  in  the  old  Roman  Empire.  This  accounts  for  much 
in  the  modern  church  and  in  modern  civilization. 

174.  Practices  like  that  of  land-grabbing  was  the  established  policy 
of  Rome.  Commercialism  and  militarism  go  along  with  it.  Christendom 
has  followed  Rome  and  wickedly  trampled  under  foot  the  Golden  Rule,  Luke 
6:31,  and  done  wicked  violence  to  the  beneficence  of  the  universal  Father, 
who  appointed  unto  men  the  bounds  of  their  habitations,  Acts  17:26.  No 
heathen  nations  begin  the  twentieth  century  with  the  dark  records  in  this 
respect  of  Christian  countries.  From  1884  to  1896,  France  increased  her 
colonial  expansion  four  times,  Great  Britain  one  and  a  third  times,  Germany 
six  times,  Italy  five  and  a  half  times;  and  since  1896,  other  Christian  pow- 
ers, including  the  United  States,  have  fallen  into  line  to  make  havoc  of 
weaker  nations.  Not  in  its  best  days  but  in  its  worst  days,  Pagan  Rome 
did  the  same  thing.  "The  Cyclopedic  Review,"  1896,  p.  971. 

176.    2  The  practice  is  followed  by  the  same  wretchedness  of  many  of 


THE     ROAD  59 

177.  All  these  and  other  operating  measures, 
make  Christianity,  with  its  cult  signification  pre- 
served all  the  way  along  its  history,  a  different 
thing  from  Jesus'  religion.1    The  only  way  to  use 
the  term  at  all,  is  to  make  it  stand  for  a  change 
in  practice  to  the  ways  of  Jesus,  and  make  Chris- 
tian mean  "a  Christ,"  as  the  apostolic   Fathers 
did. 

2.    BIBLE  RELIGION  IS  REAL  AND  PERMANENT. 

179.  Bible  religion  is  not  a  theology,  a  system, 
an  institution,  or  ceremonies;  but  a  living  spirit 
manifested  through  teachings,  laws,  histories,  but 
especially  in  biographies.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to 
say  that  the  Bible  is  a  book  of  biographies  of 

the  common  classes,  and  by  the  same  greed  and  oppression  on  the  part  of 
the  rich,  which  existed  at  Rome.  Great  Britain  is  a  kingdom  of  landlords 
and  tenants,  and  the  injustice  and  debauchery  resulting  therefrom  are  mani- 
fest in  Ireland,  Scotland  and  England.  Large  estates  mean  homeless  and 
disheartened  poor  people,  and  a  lecherous  aristocracy.  With  the  exception 
of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  which  attended  to  the  business  of  the  priesthood,  every 
Israelite  who  was  the  head  of  a  family  was  a  land  proprietor,  Matthews' 
"Bible  and  Civil  Government,"  pp.  167,  168,  251,  253;  Smith's  "History  of 
the  World,"  Vol.  II,  p.  187;  III,  p.  22;  Dr.  Arnold's  "History  of  Rome,"  p.  52, 
351;  Dick's  "Essay  on  Covetousness,"  p.  311. 

178.  l  Prof.  Harnack,  in  the  "Introduction"  to  his  "History  of  Dogma," 
thus  speaks  of  the  Graeco-Roman  Christianity:     "The  history  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  embraces  a  very  complicated  relation  of  ecclesiastical  dogma 
and  theology.     *     *     *     Augustine,  as  well  as  Luther,  disclosed  a  new 
conception  of  Christianity,  but  at  the  same  time  appropriated  the  old  dog- 
mas.    *     *     *    Neither  Augustine  nor  Luther  ever  dreamed  of  building 
independently.     *     *     *     Protestantism  has  taken  its  stand  in  principle  on 
the  Gospel  exclusively,  and  declared  its  readiness  to  determine  all  doctrines 
afresh  by  a  true  understanding  of  the  Gospel.     *     *     *     At  the  same  time 
however,  the  paradoxical  fact  is  unmistakable   that    dogma   as   such   is 
nowhere  at  this  moment  so  powerful  as  in  the  Protestant  churches.    *    *    * 
THE  LARGE  PART  OF  THE  TRADITIONAL  DOGMAS  ARE  RECOGNIZED  AS  THE 
APPROPRIATE  EXPRESSION  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION,  NAY,  AS  THE  CHRIS- 
TIAN RELIGION  ITSELF.      *    *    *    THE  LIVING  FAITH  IS  TRANSFORMED  INTO 
THE  CREED  TO  BE  BELIEVED,  THE  SURRENDER  TO  CHRIST  INTO  A  PHILOSOPHIC 
CHRISTOLOGY." 


60  THE     ROAD 

earnest  people,  since  so  much  of  its  most  valu- 
able truth  is  made  known  through  the  experi- 
ences of  struggling  men.1 

181.  One  who  is  sincerely  honest  with  the 
Bible,  and  who  is  in  earnest  to  get  its  help,  and 
one  who  feels  the  meaning  and  responsibility  of 
his  own  existence,  will  waste  no  unnecessary  time 
on  the  baubles  of  criticism  and  controversial  the- 
ology raised  up  about  the  Bible;  but,  with  well- 
poised  mind,  will  use  the  Scriptures  as  Jesus  did, 
to  resist  the  iviles  of  the  devil;  and  will  keep  clear 
of  the  conceits  and  doubts  of  insidious  beliefs, 
which  weaken  his  hold  on  the  Bible,  and  the  hold 
of  its  righteousness  upon  his  own  heart  and  life. 2 

183.  Most  people  do  not  get  their  conceptions 
of  religion,  and  their  beliefs  from  the  Bible  at 
all;  but  they  have  heard  of  it,  and  know  enough 
to  know  that  selfishness,  pride,  inequality,  divis- 
ion, greed,  oppression,  lust,  cruelty,  gambling, 
intemperance  and  war,  cannot  be  laid  at  the  door 
of  Jesus'  religion. 


180.  *  What  Jesus  said  of  his  own  teaching  is  true  of  the  Bible  gener- 
ally: "The  words  '  *  *  are  spirit,  and  are  life,"  Jno.  6:63.  Both  the 
light  and  the  dark  sides  of  men,  are  fully  made  manifest  in  the  Scriptures. 
Strong  men  on  one  side  but  weak  men  on  some  other  side,  know  the  peril- 
ous struggles  which  have  to  be  endured  because  "evil  is  present  with  me," 
Rom.  7:21.  David  never  would  have  sunken  so  low,  if  it  had  not  been  for 
a  nature  with  both  dark  and  light  sides,  and  made  dangerous  by  its  great- 
ness in  some  directions  and  weakness  in  others.  There  are  men  who  have  a 
terrible  struggle  to  make  between  the  flesh  and  the  spirit,  Gal.  5:17;  6:8. 

182.  2  It  indicates  a  great  struggle  when  a  man  cries  out  "0  wretched 
man  that  I  am!  who  shall  deliver  me  out  of  this  body  of  death,"  Rom.  7:24. 
"It  is  a  fact  of  the  utmost  significance  that  Paul  does  not  ask  for  forgive- 
ness, but  for  DELIVERANCE;  and  for  deliverance,  moreover,  not  from  the 
penalty  of  sin,  but  from  the  source  of  sin."  McGiffert's  "Apostolic  Age," 
125;  Paragraph  364. 


THE     ROAD  61 

184.  The  time  of  change  has  come;  and  ear- 
nest men  seek  for  earnest  preachers,  no  matter 
in  what  pulpits  they  are  found.    All  should  go  to 
church,  and  help  in  the  regular  services  of  wor- 
ship.    No  matter  if  we  are  not  suited  in  every- 
thing.    We  do  not  want  the  road  by  our  house 
closed,  because  it  is  a  poor  road.     We  continue 
to  use  it,  and  exert  a  steady  influence  to  get  a 
better  one.     We  all  should  take  our  families,  and 
go  where  we  can  hear  tire  Gospel.     Roman  civili- 
zation is  losing  its  hold  upon  men  who  feel  the 
meaning  of  existence;  and  sometime  it  will  die 
out  of  Christendom,  and  religion  once  more  as  of 
old,  will  signify  to  walk  in  the  steps  of  Jesus  and 
in  the  Road  of  Holiness,  and  the   Church   will 
mean  a  Brotherhood.    No  man  can  afford  to  pass 
over  to  his  children,  or  to  pass  into  the  heathen 
world,  any  other  conception  of  God's  universal 
and  permanent  religion  and  kingdom. 

3-     LEADING  POINTS  MANIFESTED  IN  THIS  CHAPTER. 

185.  The  Christian  religion  is  not  a  product  of 
Jesus'  teaching  alone.  There  are  Jewish  elements 
in  it;  and,  especially,  there  are  elements  from 
every  influential  source  of  philosophy  and  religion 
and  civilization  in  the  Roman  Empire. 

186.  It  is  every  man's  duty,  and  in  these  times 
it  is  especially  his  duty  to  go  to  the  Bible  for 
his  religion.     We  want  no  more  Graeco-Roman 
religion  served  out  to  us  in  Bible  phraseology. 

187.  Every  man   should  join  himself  to  the 
LORD,  and  take  part  in  this  greatest  reformation 
the  world  has   ever  had  since   the   Apostles;  a 
reformation  far  greater  than  that  of  the  sixteenth 


62  THE     ROAD 

century,  which  was  but  a  protest  against  certain 
abuses;  a  reformation  to  put  out  of  Christianity  all 
the  ingredients  which  were  not  put  into  it  by 
Jesus. 

188.  The  highest  use  which  any  man  can  make 
of  his  life,  is  to  walk  in  the  Road  of  Jesus. 
Humility  in  service  for  the  world,  and  love,  not 
as  a  superficial  sentiment  but  as  an  active  force 
leading  one  to  do  good,  are  the  vital  organs  of  a 
truly  pious  life. 


V 
LIGHT  AND  LIFE  IN  EVERY   LAND. 

189.  "I  will  make  all  my  mountains  the  Way  and  my  Highways  shall 
be  exalted.      Lo,  these  shall  come  from  far;  and,  lo,  these  from  the  north 
and  from  the  west;  and  these  from  the  land  of  Sinim."     (China) l 

191.  "They  shall  come  from  the  east  and  west,  and  from  the  north 
and  south,  and  shall  sit  down  in  the  kingdom  of  God." 

192.  "Other  sheep  I  have,  which  are  not  of  this  fold;  them  also  I  must 
bring,  and  they  shall  hear  my  voice;  and  they  shall  become  one  flock  and 
one  shepherd."2 

I.     GOD'S  RELIGION  GIVES  LIGHT  EVERYWHERE. 

194.  The  population  which  the  universal 
Father  has  provided  for  this  world,  numbers  at 
any  period,  about  fifteen  hundred  millions.  About 
three-fifths  of  these  are  in  Asia;  and  less  than 
one-third  are  in  Europe  and  North  and  South 
America.  Buddhists  outnumber  Christians;  and 
of  all  the  religions  not  Christian,  there  are  two 
people  for  every  one  in  Christendom.  This  is 
the  condition  of  mankind,  two  thousand  years 
after  Christianity  began.  Every  one  of  these  peo- 
ple is  a  human  being,  a  sinner  no  better  or  worse 

190.  l  Prof.  Alexander's  "Notes"  on  the  Hebrew  of  this  text  says,  it  is 
not  A  way  but  THE  way.     The  description  names  China,  and  reaches  out  to 
all  lands,  the  same  as  the  text  following.     Isai.  49:11,  12;  Luke  13:29. 

193.  2  John  10:16.      Jesus  refers  to  these  "sheep"  as  at  that  time  his 
own.      They  were  the  truth  seekers  and  truth  lovers  of  all  lands,  who  as 
yet  had  no  knowledge  of  him  personally.       It  is  universally  true  that  man- 
kind receive  benefits  from  many  whom  they  do  not  know.      Jesus  bestows 
benefits  impartially  upon  all  mankind,  even  where  they  do  not  know  him. 
When  he  found  piety  among  the  heathen  with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  he 
acknowledged  it  the  same  as  Jewish  piety,  Matt.  8:10;  15:28. 


64  THE     ROAD 

than  ourselves,  with  a  few  years  of  life  here 
and  an  eternity  hereafter.  If  there  is  no  way  of 
salvation  in  Christ  for  these  millions  upon  mill- 
ions, who  have  never  heard  of  him,  then  how  does 
God  act  the  part  of  a  Father  toward  them  ?  It  is 
as  cruel  a  charge  against  God,  to  say  that  the 
religions  of  the  world  are  not  Providential  and 
have  no  light  or  life  in  them,  as  to  make  that 
other  horrible  charge  of  a  theology,  now  about 
dead,  that  there  are  infants  in  hell.  God  can  save 
the  heathen  who  have  not  known  of  his  revealed 
religion,  as  he  saved  anybody  before  Jesus  came, 
and  as  he  now  saves  infants,  and  those  of  imper- 
fect mind  or  knowledge. 

195.  To  only  three  of  the  Apostles  was  given 
the  work  of  interpreting  Jesus  to  after  ages,  Paul, 
Peter  and  John.  They  all  taught  that  God's  love 
and  salvation  reaches  beyond  the  letter  of 
revealed  religion.  Paul  meant,  and  the  Athen- 
ians so  understood  his  meaning,  that  all  men 
alike  have  the  Fatherly  interest  and  care  of  God, 
and  all  men  have  responsibility  to  God.  As  a 
father  he  fixed  the  bounds  of  their  habitation, 
and  provides  for  men  life,  breath,  the  seasons, 
and  all  things.1  Peter  was  not  certain  of  the 
universalism  of  the  Gospel  until  he  saw  it  demon- 
strated at  the  home  of  Cornelius,  a  man  who 
legally  and  socially  belonged  to  the  heathen 
community  and  was  not  a  proselyte  of  the  gate.2 
His  language  confesses  the  new  insight:  "Of  a 
truth  I  perceive  that  God  is  no  respector  of  persons; 

'Acts  17:24-28;  Rom.  1:18-21;  4:9-10.  God's  stores  are  equally  dis- 
tributed to  men. 

2  Acts  10:34,  35.     See  Smith's  "Bible  Dictionary,"  Vol.  1,  p.  49£ 


THE     ROAD  65 

but  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth  him,  and  work- 
eth  righteousness,  is  acceptable  to  him."  The  Jesus- 
like  heart  of  John  went  out  to  the  "sheep"  of  the 
fold  everywhere;1  and  he,  the  same  as  the  other 
Apostles,  lived  in  fellowship  with  all  good  peo- 
ple. 

196.  There  is  an  inner  light,  and  the  fruits  of 
the  Spirit,  which  evidence  the  existence  every- 
where of  the  life,  and  light  which  all  men  receive 
from  God.  The  Quaker  traveler,  Robert  Mere- 
dith, went  around  the  world;  and  worked  and 
slept,  and  took  part  in  all  the  customs  of  life,  along 
with  men  of  all  races  and  countries.  He  told  the 
author,  and  witnesses  to  the  same  in  his  book,2 
that  there  is  a  universal  spiritual  life,  which 
manifests  itself  through  acts  of  kindness  and 
brotherhood.  He  says  that  religious  sentiments 
are  as  universal  as  sun-light,  or  as  the  facts  of 
science,  and  God's  provisions  to  support  human 
life.  Daniel  March  traveled  forty  thousand  miles 
in  investigations  of  mission  work.  He  testifies  to 
kind  treatment  and  noble  sentiments  every- 
where, and  says:  "The  promised  time  of  univer- 
sal brotherhood  among  men  of  all  nations  is 
nearer  at  hand  than  we  are  apt  to  think."  His 
extensive  travels  in  China,  led  him  to  say,  in  com- 
mon with  others,  that  "they  carry  their  religion 


1  John  10:16.     Jesus  never  instructed  his  disciples  to  withdraw  from 
the  Jewish  church,  or  from  any  other  body  of  worshipers.      Jno.  1:9;  3:16; 
4:24;  Acts  24:17,  18. 

2  Meredith's  "Around  the  World  on  Sixty  Dollars,"  p.  193,  363. 

3 March's  "Mornkig  Li^ht  in  Many  Lands,"  p.  107-109:  127-138;  187; 
195;  13-16; 


66  THE     ROAD 

everywhere  and  into  everything;"  and  he  gives 
many  evidences  of  their  virtues. l 

198.  There  are  three  things  about  roads  which 
suggest  the  world-wide  influence  of  God's 
religion  and  the  universality  of  his  grace:  (a) 
Roads  have  existed  from  the  beginnings  of  human 
life,  and  so  is  the  religion  of  God  ever-existent. 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  quotes  from  Max  Muller 
the  following  remarkable  passage,  taken  from 
St.  Augustine:  "That  which  is  now  called  the 
Christian  religion  existed  among  the  ancients, 
and  never  did  not  exist  from  the  planting  of  the 
human  race  until  Christ  came  in  the  flesh,  at 
which  times  the  true  religion,  which  already  sub- 
sisted, began  to  be  called  Christianity."  (b)  Roads 
go  out  from  each  other  and  extend  to  every 
human  habitation,  and  so  does  God's  religion 
extend  everywhere,  (c)  At  first  thought,  roads 
seem  to  be  very  many,  but,  as  their  value  depends 
upon  their  running  into  each  other,  there  is  in 
fact  by  land  and  by  water  only  one  road;  and  so 
it  is  with  the  religions  of  the  world,  they  differ 
relatively  as  much  as  roads  differ,  but  if  there  is 
life  and  light  anywhere,  it  is  the  same  light  and 
life,  and  everywhere  there  are  the  same  fruits  of 
the  Spirit,2  and  the  same  language  of  the  Spirit 
written  upon  the  hearts  of  mankind.3 

197.  l  The  qualities  of  the  Chinese  named  in  Mr.  March's  book  are: 
religious  devotion,  unity  in  religion,  charity  of  opinions,  freedom  from  sav- 
ave  ways,  desires  for  better  things,  ease  with  which  they  are  impressed  by 
elevating  influences,  kindness  to  strangers,  patriotism,  family  fidelity, 
patience  in  trials  and  suffering,  temperance,  industry,  reliability  in  meeting 
trusts,  ability  and  good  judgment.  It  is  foolish  to  say  that  all  this  exists 
without  Light  from  God  in  the  oldest  and  greatest  nation  in  the  world. 

2  Gal.  5:22. 

'$>  Cor  3t3-8{  Jer>  31:33;  Ezek,  11:19,  20;  86:26,  27;  Ps.  40:8, 


THE     ROAD  67 

199.  The   conception  of  religion  above  given 
greatly  enlarges  our  view  of  Christ's  atonement 
and  of  all  his  blessed  work.  If  all  who  are  saved  in 
all  lands,  and  from  the  beginning  of  the  human 
race,  are  saved  by  Jesus,  then  truly,  "in  none  other 
is  there  salvation;  for  neither  is  there  any  other 
name  under  'heaven,  that  is  given  among  men, 
wherein  we  must  be  saved."1     Then,  truly,  man- 
kind are  purchased  unto  God  of  every  tribe,  and 
tongue,  and  people,  and  nation;2  then  truly,  the 
Lamb  hath  been  slain  from  the.  foundation  of  the 
world; 3  then,  truly,  Grod  sent  Jesus  by  his  love  for 
all  the  world.4 

200.  The  way  of  justification,  therefore,  is  the 
same  everywhere,  and  in  all  ages.     Paul  writes 
of  the  justification  of  Abraham,  to  show  that  it 
was  the  same  as  ours.5    Religious  experience  also 
has  always  been  the  same  in  kind.     We  pray  for 
Abraham's  faith,  or  for  the  patience  of  Job,  or  for 
the  meekness  of  Moses,  and  we  worship  with  the 
Psalms  of  David. 

201.  Great  men  of  the  Brahmo  Soniaj  Society 
of  India,  applied  themselves  to  ascertain  the  sub- 
stance  or  essence  of  all  religion.6    They  deter- 
mined (a)  that  it  exists  in  the  spiritual  exercises  of 
repentance,    faith,    and    prayer;    and     (b)   that 
religion  exists  for  the  two  ends  of  morality  and 


1  Acts  4:12;  1  Tim. 4:10.  2Rev.5:9.  3Rev.l3:8.  4Jno.  3:16.  5 Rom.  4:6-11. 
6  When  Christ  spoke  to  his  disciples  of  certain  things  which  they  could 
not  yet  comprehend,  but  which  would  be  revealed  to  them  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  (Jno.  16:13),  he  doubtless  referred  to  that  essence  of  religion  which 
is  not  confined  to  place,  or  time,  or  outward  observances,  and  which  makes 
all  people  one  in  spiritual  worship  and  faith,  and  of  which  he  spoke  to  the 
woman  of  Samaria,  Jno.  4:23,  24;  Neander's  "Planting  of  Christianity," 
Vol.  I,  p.  49. 


68  THE    ROAD 

worship.  How  near  this  comes  to  the  New  Tes- 
tament, is  manifest  by  the  fact  that  there  is  no 
teaching  of  doctrine  simply  as  doctrine,  but  to 
rebuke  sin  and  build  characters  of  holiness.  The 
highest  conceptions  of  both  morality  and  wor- 
ship appear  in  the  life  of  Jesus.1 

202.  The  Road  is  simply  the  name  for  this  Life 
and  Light,  which  is  manifested  here  and  there  in 
the  religions  of  the  world,  and  which  is  the 
underlying  substance  or  essence  of  all  of  them. 
And  the  Road  is  the  religion  and  not  a  religion. 
It  cannot  be  compared  with  either  of  the  other 
religions  because  if  there  is  any  Life  or  Light  in 
them,  to  that  extent,  and  to  that  extent  only,  are 
they  God's  religion.  "The  Light  of  Asia/'  and 
all  other  light,  is  borrowed  from  the  "Light  of  the 
World,"  as  the  moon  and  stars  give  light,  not  of 
themselves  but  from  the  sun.  If  the  sun  ceased 
to  shine,  the  moon  and  stars  would  not  give  light; 
and  in  less  than  thirty  days  life  would  cease  and 
the  earth  would  become  a  desert. 

208.  The  saving  power  in  Christianity,  or  in 
any  cultus  in  the  world,  is  because  that  with  the 
measure  of  truth  which  each  contains,  God  can 
project  into  the  world  life  and  light;  and  as  the 
world  would  perish  physically  without  God's 
means  and  constant  care,  so  would  it  perish  mor- 
ally and  spiritually  without  his  light  and  life 
everywhere  and  all  the  time.  There  is  not  one 
sun  for  Asia  and  another  for  Europe  and  another 
for  America.  It  may  in  all  these  countries  be 
known  by  many  different  names,  and  it  may  be 

1  Brooks'  "Our  New  Departure,"  p.  32. 


THE     ROAD  69 

better  understood  in  some  places  than  in  others, 
and  it  may  shine  brighter  in  some  localities  than 
in  others,  but  it  is  the  same  sun  everywhere.  Sci- 
ence is  truth  the  same  everywhere.  The  same  is 
true  of  God's  religion.  Truth  cannot  be  sepa- 
rated, no  matter  in  what  religion  or  nation  it 
reveals  itself.  If  there  are  certain  primary 
truths  present  in  Christianity,  and  they  are 
equally  present  in  Buddhism,  the  two  religions 
in  that  respect  are  just  as  much  the  same  as  the 
shining  of  the  sun  in  the  two  widely  separated 
localities  of  America  and  Asia.1 

2.     DARKNESS  WHERE  THE  LIGHT  SHOULD  SHINE. 

205.  It  is  claimed  that  the  light  of  Christian- 
ity will  convert  the  world  to  Jesus;  and  its  con- 
tents and  processes,  therefore,  are  matters  of 
solicitous  inquiry  to  know  whether  they  lead  to 
Jesus.  What  a  conversion  it  will  be,  if  we  take 
to  heathen  lands  coyetousness,  greed,  commer- 
cialism, the  corporation  combinations  of  the  rich 
and  strong  against  the  weak,  and  land-grabbing. 
Will  Christendom  debauch  other  nations  as  Eng- 
land debauched  China  by  the  opium  trade?  It 
will  be  a  great  conversion,  if  the  liquor  traffic  is 
permitted  to  drive  and  tempt  subject  races  into 
drunkenness,  as  it  has  cursed  the  American 
Indians,  and  as  it  is  cursing  every  other  weaker 

204.  l  The  spiritual  presence  of  Jesus,  not  by  any  name  but  as  a  living 
influence,  is  as  noiseless  and  unnoticed  by  men  as  that  of  the  sun.  It  is  the 
silent  influences  of  God  which  are  the  most  powerful.  Silently  and 
unnoticed  Jesus  was  born  into  the  world,  and  with  noiseless  stillness  like 
that  of  the  sun,  and  just  as  universal,  he  goes  on  in  his  work  for  mankind. 
In  him  is  life;  and,  he  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world,  Jno. 
1:4,9;  Geikie's  "Life  of  Christ,"  Ch.  VIII,  p.  74;  1  Kings  19:12,18. 


70  THE     ROAD 

people  where  the  commerce  and  authority  of 
Christendom  extend.  It  will  be  a  great  conver- 
sion to  yoke  and  rob  the  weaker  races  by  trusts, 
and  militarism.1 

207.  "Con  verting"  and  "civilizing"  the  Indians, 
right  at  our  doors  and  immediately  under  our 
influence  has  been  their  ruin,  morally  and  physi- 
cally.    Before    the   wickedness   of    "benevolent 
assimilation"   began,    the    Indians    drank    only 
water,  had  a  sense  of  honor,  pride  of  character, 
and  customs  and  fixed  habits  of  religion.    A  cen- 
tury and  a  half  of  training  in  revenge,  unquench- 
able hate,  loss  of  self-respect,  and  whisky,  have 
debauched  them  seemingly  beyond  recovery.2 

208.  The  Sandwich  Islanders  thought  well  of 
the  United  States  and  Christianity,  and  welcomed 
our  missionaries    in    1820.      Immediately    they 
co-operated  as  friends  to  plant  schools  and  the 
new  religion.     Books  have  been  written  which 
tell  of  the  great  conversion  of  this  nation.     It  is 
time  to  revise  these  books  now  and  tell  the  facts 

206.  l  Stead's  "If  Christ  Came  to  Chicago,"  and  later  books  written  to 
expose  existing  evils,  represent  the  most  deeply  immoral  conditions  in  the 
United  States  to  be  found  in  the  world.  The  facts,  stripped  of  exaggera- 
tions, do  not  destroy  hope  for  our  country  and  for  humanity;  but,  when  it 
is  true  that  the  majority  of  men  entrusted  with  the  administration  of  law 
in  the  cities  are  in  sympathy  with  the  liquor  traffic,  and  that  the  population 
of  our  cities  is  growing  much  faster  than  the  population  of  the  outside 
country,  it  is  certain  that  morals  are  in  danger  of  being  held  down  by 
appetite  and  avarice,  which  are  the  vilest  ingredients  of  a  debauched  civili- 
zation. Covetousness,  in  the  New  Testament,  is  catalogued  with  the  vilest 
sins  therein  mentioned,  and  this  vile  affection  works  through  both  avarice 
and  appetite.  The  liquor  traffic  and  other  vile  practices  are  rooted  in 
avarice  and  appetite.  Most  of  the  wrongs  committed  by  mankind  against 
each  other  have  the  same  evil  sources. 

2  See  Catlin's  "North  American  Indians;"  Helen  Jackson's  "A  Cen- 
tury of  Dishonor;"  Benton's  "Thirty  Years  in  the  United  States  Senate," 
Vol.  1,  p.  27-29. 


THE     ROAD  71 

of  shame;  for  they  have  been  debauched  the  same 
as  the  Indians.  At  the  time  of  the  revolution  in 
1893,  a  large  proportion  of  the  landed  property  in 
the  city  of  Honolulu  was  either  owned  absolutely 
or  controlled  in  leaseholds  by  Americans;  and 
the  great  agricultural  interests  throughout  the 
Islands  were  also  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  Ameri- 
cans. The  natives  as  a  body  were  opposed  to 
annexation  to  the  United  States,  but  their  opposi- 
tion was  not  considered.  A  missionary's  son  took 
the  seat  of  the  native  ruler,  and  the  first  Execu- 
tive Council  were  all  Americans  by  birth  or 
extraction.  Most  of  the  ministers  of  the  govern- 
ment for  many  years  were  Americans.  The  gov- 
ernment and  the  wealth  of  the  Islands  have  thus 
passed  into  the  hands  of  foreigners;  and  never 
again  will  be  held  by  the  natives.  The  natives 
are  filled  with  hate,  while  they  are  being  pushed 
along  toward  poverty,  the  loss  of  self-respect,  and 
despair.  What  is  their  outlook,  reduced  as  they 
are  at  the  present  time  to  but  little  more  than 
one-fifth  of  the  population  ?  Are  they  doomed  to 
follow  the  Indians?  Are  they  to  be  another  exam- 
ple of  Christianizatipn  by  land-grabbing,  extor- 
tion, and  extermination? l 


209.  !  See  Carpenter  s  "America  in  Hawaii,"  p.  173,  and  Government 
Documents  relating  to  Annexation.  Carpenter's  book,  Krout's  "Hawaii  and 
a  Revolution,"  and  Blackman's  "Making  of  Hawaii,"  are  all  written  in  the 
interest  of  "the  missionary  element,"  and  raise  no  question  as  to  the 
righteousness  of  3000  Americans  taking  possession  of  the  government  and 
most  valuable  property,  and  yoking  the  industries  of  the  Islands  to  monopo- 
lies. 

After  the  missionaries  had  been  there  three  years,  in  1823,  they  esti- 
mated the  natives  to  be  142,000.  The  census  of  1832  reported  the 
natives  to  be  130,313.  The  census  of  1896  reported  the  total  popu- 
lation, over  40,000  of  them  Japanese  and  Chinese,  to  be  109,020;  and 


72  THE    ROAD 

210.  The  Prophets  of  God  called  Jesus  the 
Prince  of  Peace,  and  described  his  kingdom  as 
one   without  war.     Their  beautiful  conceptions 
of  human  brotherhood  accord  with  all  that  Jesus 
taught.     It  is  a  great  gulf  which  exists  between 
the  practice  of  Christendom  with  its  bloody  wars, 
and  the  Lord's  Prayer,  Jesus  and  the  Prophets. 
The  Bible  conception  of  peace  is  better  met  by 
some  of  the  heathen  lands.  The  wars  of  Napoleon, 
and  the  militarism,  with  which  the  eighteenth 
century  closed  and  the  nineteenth  century  began, 
involved  greater  loss  of  life,  but  hardly  surpassed 
in  wickedness  those  with  which  the  nineteenth 
century  closed  and  the  twentieth  century  opened.1 
Every  Christian  nation  has  enlarged  its  army  and 
navy.     What  progress  is  this  towards  a  Millen- 
nium? 2 

the  NATIVES  WERE  31,019,  AND  5,578  LESS  THAN  IN  1884.  These  natives, 
for  the  most  part,  are  in  a  wretched  state  compared  with  that  of  their 
generous  and  joyous  forefathers.  The  Hawaiians  were  remarkable  foj 
their  happiness.  They  as  a  race  lack  foresight  and  judgment;  and  no  peo- 
ple ever  were  more  easily  robbed  or  more  rapidly  exterminated.  Among 
the  missionaries  were  good  men,  but  the  total  record  of  America  in  Hawaii 
is  abominable.  Krout  says,  p.  314:  "It  is  said  that  the  vices  which  have 
decimated  the  Hawaiian  race  so  fearfully,  have  been  those  with  which  our 
vaunted  civilization  is  not  unfamiliar— gin  and  licentiousness."  What  a 
prospect  is  before  the  United  States  Christians  by  the  "civilizing"  of 
Hawaii,  the  Philippine  Islands,  Cuba,  and  wherever  else  our  ships  are  con- 
veying missionaries,  swords,  whisky,  tobacco,  and  monopolies. 

211.  1lt  is  estimated  that  Napoleon  killed  over  three  million  men. 
France  is  an  example  of  the  evils  of  militarism,  planted  by  Napoleon.     See 
Gohier's  article,  "The  Dangers  of  Militarism,"  New  York  Independent,  1900, 
p.  233;  and  Prof.  Herve's  article  in  the  same  magazine,  1902,  p.  2170. 

212.  2  After  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  April  1865,  the  soldiers  returned 
to  their Afarms  and  shops,  with  no  thought  of  fostering  in  our  country  a 
military  spirit.  Gen.  Grant,  and  all  the  great  patriots  of  that  period,  was 
opposed  to  an  army  and  navy  after  the  fashion  of  Europe.  He  said:  "When 
wars  do  come  they  fall  upon  the  many,  the  producing  classes,  who  are  the 
sufferers."  *  *  *  "Although  a  soldier  by  profession,  I  have  never  felt 
any  sort  of  fondness  for  war,  and  I  have  never  advocated  it,  except  as  a 


THE     ROAD  78 

213.  The  oldest  government  in  the  world  is 
the  Chinese  Empire,  begun  in  the  providence  of 
God  over  forty  centuries  ago,  whose  bounds  of 
habitation  encompass   one-third   of   the  human 
race.  The  population  in  some  localities  is  danger- 
ously congested;  but  the  government  is  able  to 
keep  peace  and  provide  for  the  public  good  by 
the  family  life  of  the  people,  which  is  marked  by 
its  filial  piety  and  affectionate  devotion,  and  by 
the  great  patriotism  and  religious  unity  of  the 
Chinese.     In  view   of  such  conditions,  and  the 
great  burdens  and  perils  of  the  Chinese  govern- 
ment, was  there  ever  a  more  heartless  and  wicked 
deed  done  than  that  of  the  year  1900,  when  seven 
combined  Christian  countries  made  a  murderous 
and  looting  invasion,  which  extended  to  China's 
capital?  and  which  on  account  of  the  many  mill- 
ions of  exacted  indemnity,  for  many  years  will 
greatly  burden  the  people,  intensify  their  dissat- 
isfaction with  foreigners,  and  endanger  the  peace 
of  the  government. l 

means  of  peace,"  Richardson's  "Personal  History  of  U.  S.  Grant,"  p.  628. 
When  the  war  with  Spain  for  the  liberation  of  Cuba,  began,  prayers  for  its 
success,  and  references  to  the  special  Providences,  were  common  in  the 
churches;  but  when  later  the  wave  of  militarism  flooded  the  country,  and 
the  war  of  subjugation  in  the  Philipine  Islands -began,  there  were  few  or  no 
more  prayers.  The  army  and  navy  were  greatly  enlarged;  and  our  land  of 
liberty,  with  its  patriotic  volunteer  soldiery,  was  Europeanized  by  military 
measures  and  the  military  spirit.  Thus  the  twentieth  century  opened.  The 
Philippine  war  was  the  legitimate  offspring  of  this  militarism.  A  funda- 
mental principle  of  the  Republic  had  been  the  subordination  of  the  military 
to  civil  authority.  In  1793,  there  was  a  long  debate  in  Congress  on  the 
reduction  of  the  army  and  the  military  establishment.  In  the  course  of  that 
debate  the  policy  always  in  favor  in  this  Republic  against  militarism,  is 
clearly  expressed  again  and  again,  Benton's  "Debates  in  Congress,"  Vol.  I, 
p.  398-4 15;  759-767. 

214.  1  The  army  which  entered  Pekin  was  made  up  as  follows:     Ger- 
many 17,750;  France  14,050;  England  12,850;  Russia  9,000;  Japan  6,000; 


74  THE     ROAD 

215.  Until     the    Philippine    war   began,  the 
record   of   which  begins  the   twentieth  century 
and  makes  the  blackest  page  in  United  States  his- 
tory, the  Mexican  war  held  the  chief  place  for 
wickedness.1     By  the  Mexican  war  to  win  more 

Italy  2,350;  United  States  1,600;  Austria  250.  The  causes  leading  to  this 
war  in  China,  have  been  debated  chiefly  in  Germany,  where  it  is  charged 
that  Protestant  missionaries  by  their  lack  of  practical  wisdom  and  respect 
for  native  customs  provoked  the  Chinese  to  mob  violence  and  murder.  The 
Chinese  government  has  made  the  same  charge.  German  war  vessels, 
which  was  the  start  of  the  war  movement,  were  sent  out  by  the  influence 
of  a  Catholic  Bishop.  For  facts  condensed,  see  the  New  York  Independent, 
December  20,  1900,  p.  3059,  3060.  It  shows  t}ie  apostate  spirit  and  prac- 
tice of  Christianity,  when  its  missionaries  join  hands  with  militarism,  refuse 
to  become  citizens  of  countries  where  they  go,  and  fall  back  to  their  home 
governments  at  every  opportunity  to  protect  immunities  and  to  exact  indem- 
nities. Such  things  are  abominable.  On  one  occasion  the  Chinese  govern- 
ment had  to  pay  a  missionary  indemnity  of  $169,000.  See  The  Indepen- 
dent for  1900,  p.  3061.  There  is  no  risk  in  saying  that  Jesus  does  not 
want  his  religion  propagated  in  any  such  ways,  and  that  such  methods  will 
never  make  peace  on  earth.  The  evils  in  the  missionary  system  were 
pointed  out  at  the  World's  Congress  of  Religions,  Chicago  1893;  and  if 
there  had  been  reformation,  this  war  might  have  been  prevented.  "Neely's 
History  of  the  Parliament  of  Religions,"  pp.  607-613,  794.  The  missionary 
work  must  be  sustained,  but  it  also  must  be  reformed;  and  the  missionaries 
must  relate  themselves  differently  to  the  light  by  which  God  enlighteneth 
every  man  who  cometh  into  the  world;  and  there  must  be  a  different  treat- 
ment of  the  Providential  religions. 

As  far  back  as  1871,  James  Freeman  Clarke,  in  "Ten  Great  Religions," 
p.  506,  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  good  of  the  missionary  work  in 
China,  had  been  accomplished  alone  by  the  New  Testament.  It  certainly  is 
true  of  all  heathen  lands,  that  the  good  which  has  come  by  the  contact  of 
Christianity  with  their  religions,  has  not  been  on  account  of  conversions  to 
a  Protestant  or  Catholic  sect,  but  by  the  communication  of  the  simple  truth 
and  life  of  the  Gospel.  The  Life  in  the  Providential  religions,  properly 
dealt  with  and  directed,  inclines  to  and  joins  with  the  Life  and  Light  of  the 
world,  as  two  drops  of  water  when  brought  in  contact  with  each  other 
become  one.  This  certainly  was  the  method  of  Jesus  and  of  Paul.  Money 
which  goes  into  missionary  work  everywhere,  is  worse  than  wasted  if  it 
does  not  circulate  the  New  Testament. 

216.  l  General  Grant  says  of  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  the  wars: 
"For  myself,  I  was  bitterly  opposed  to  the  measure,  and  to  this  day  regard 
the  war,  which  resulted,  as  one  of  the  most  unjust  ever  waged  by  a  stronger 
against  a  weaker  nation.     It  was  an  instance  of  a  Republic  following  the 


THE    ROAD  75 

territory  for  new  slave  states,  was  planted  sec- 
tional seed  which  only  fifteen  years  later  ripened 
into  the  dreadful  harvest  of  the  Civil  War.1 

218.  It  seems  that  the  heart  of  a  sincere  man 
of  the  poorest  religion  on  earth,  would  sink 
under  the  tacts  of  the  Boer  and  Philippine  wars. 
Were  loyal  soldiers  of  England  and  America  ever 
sent  to  tight  and  die  for  reasons  so  questionable? 
History  in  time  will  write  the  actual  facts  with- 
out prejudice  of  Boer  life  and  independence;  and 
of  the  long  struggles  of  the  Filipinos  for  liberty, 
which  ended  in  the  destruction  of  their  Kati- 
punan  Society  of  independence  and  the  killing  of 
most  of  its  50,000  members.  It  is  impossible  to 
keep  from  the  history  that  will  be  read  a  hundred 
years  hence,  the  true  account  of  this  subjuga- 
tion.2 It  will  be  impossible  to  disconnect  the 
facts  of  Spain's  unsuccessful  and  cruel  attempts 
to  crush  the  spirit  of  liberty  in  the  Islands,  with 


bad  example  of  European  monarchies,  in  not  considering  justice  in  their 
desire  to  acquire  additional  territory.  *  *  *  The  Southern  rebellion 
was  largely  the  outgrowth  of  the  Mexican  war.  Nations  like  individuals  are 
punished  for  their  transgressions.  We  got  our  punishment  in  the  most  san- 
guinary and  expensive  war  of  modern  times."  "Personal  Memoirs  of  U.  S. 
Grant,"  Vol.  I,  p.  53,  56. 

217.  1  More  than  half  a  million  perished  by  the  Civil  War,  of  as  noble 
a  generation  as  the  world  ever  had.  Future  historians  will  determine 
whether  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  the  consolidation  of  the  Union, 
together  with  evil  causes  by  wicked  ambitions  and  designs,  made  it  neces- 
sary that  there  should  be  this  great  sacrifice  of  human  life.  The  time  had 
come  for  the  removal  of  slavery  from  the  world.  Russia,  in  1863,  freed 
her  fourteen  millions  of  serfs  without  any  violence.  Books,  like  Helper's 
'Impending  Crisis"  written  in  1859,  which  contrasted  the  South  with  the 
North  and  which  showed  the  disadvantages  of  a  slave-civilization,  evidence 
to  a  reader  now  that  in  any  event  slavery  was  doomed,  and  sooner  or  later 
had  to  perish. 

2  Senate  Document  No.  62,  Part  I,  Fifty-fifth  Congress,  and  following 
government  documents. 


76  THE     ROAD 

the  coming  of  a  mighty  Nation  from  half  way 
around  the  globe,  which  did  subdue  and  govern 
without  the  consent  of  the  governed.1 

And  when  future  history  tells  the  bare,  cold 
facts  of  the  patriot's  last  sacrifice,  the  sacrifice  of 


219.  !The  violation  of  >  the  right  of  a  people  to  themselves  and  to 
their  own  country,  is  clean-cut  wrong  and  oppression.  This  wicked  thing 
was  the  reason  for  the  War  of  Independence  of  1776.  It  was  purely  a 
war  of  self-defense  and  home  protection,  or  what  General  Grant  calls  "a 
means  of  peace/'  Paragraph  212.  When  one  nation  treats  with  another, 
"souls"  are  not  the  subject  of  contract  or  sale.  There  was  a  reference  to 
this  principle  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  "the  largest 
conquest  ever  peacefully  achieved,"  Elaine's  "Twenty  Years  of  Congress," 
Vol.  I,  p.  6.  The  careful  student  of  the  eternal  principles  of  right  embod- 
ied in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  which  every  one  should  understand, 
must  read  such  authorities  as  Vattel's  "Law  of  Nations,"  Book  I,  chapter 
18,  p.  100;  chapter  21,  p.  118;  and  Woolsey's  "Introduction  to  the  Study  of 
International  Law,"  Section  53,  pp.  78,  79;  Section  52,  p.  78;  Section  153, 
p.  259. 

It  is  a  sin  which  God  will  certainly  call  any  nation  in  some  way  to 
answer  for,  to  interfere  with  the  Rights  by  "the  bounds  of  their  habitation," 
Acts  17:26,  which  he  has  set  for  another  people;  Paragraph  216. 

God's  wrath  is  as  certain  as  the  laws  of  Nature.  When  one  considers 
the  awful  results  of  such  a  war  against  a  poor  and  weak  people,  and  that 
from  the  first  occupation  of  the  Philippine  Islands  there  was  poured  into 
them  drunkenness,  immorality,  and  all  the  means  and  influences  of  debauch- 
ery, he  has  neither  heart  nor  sense  if  he  does  not  fear  Justice  and  dread  the 
future. 

"Justice  and  boundless  power  exalt  his  throne, 
Beneficent  to  all,  unjust  to  none." —Scott's  Job,  ch.  27,  v.  23. 

God's  vengeance  and  wrath  are  spoken  of  many  times  in  the  Bible. 
They  refer  to  the  energy  of  his  love  in  exercise  against  wrong,  and  are  not 
a  passion  of  anger  or  an  outbreak  of  temper,  as  in  man.  As  God's  love, 
associated  with  eternal  justice  cannot  change,  the  righteous  will  not  go 
unrewarded  and  the  wicked  will  not  go  unpunished.  It  was  well  said  by 
George  McDonald: — "There  is  no  refuge  from  the  compelling  love  of  God, 
save  that  love  itself."  What  a  man  soweth  he  shall  reap;  and  Jesus  said 
the  martyred  Prophet's  blood  would  continue  to  be  remembered,  Gal.  6:7; 
Luke  11:50.  In  this  life  there  often  is  lack  of  opportunities,  and  many 
inequalities,  misfortunes  and  chances;  and  it  is  too  short  a  time  for  the 
heavenly  Father  to  do  justice  by  all;  but  justice  will  be  done  in  this  life  or 
the  next,  "that  every  mouth  may  be  stopped,  and  all  the  world  may  be 
brought  under  the  judgment  of  God,"  Rom.  3:19;  Luke  12:47,  48. 


THE     ROAD  77 

himself,  for  his  country's  Right  to  Govern  itself, 
is  it  to  be  told  also  that  they  were  wasted  away 
like  other  feeble  people  which  have  been 
"civilized?" 

3.    THE  LIGHT  OF  ASIA  REFLECTING  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  WORLD. 

220.  There  is  not  one  star  in  the  heavens,  no 
matter  how  small,   that   God  does   not   use  to 
reflect  into  the  dark  night  the  light  of  the  sun; 
and  there  is  no  cultus  which  God  does  not   use 
to  give  to  the  dark  world  some  of  the  light  of  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness.     No  star  is  the  Sun  itself, 
but  each  may  reflect  little  or  much  of  God's  Sun. 
It  has  been  a  great  mistake  to  consider  Christi- 
anity as  the  Sun  itself,  or  as  more  than  a  cultus; 
and  it  has  been  an  equal  mistake  to  deny  that 
God  uses  any  other  cult  to  reflect  his  Sun.     This 
last  statement  has  an  unparalleled  illustration 
just  now  in  the  "Appeal  to  the  Ecclesiastics  of 
the  World,"  relating  to  China,  signed  by  the  six 
Presidents  of  the  "Great  Japan  Buddhist  Union," 
October  11,  1900.     It  is  a  better  assertion  of  the 
truth  of  this  chapter  than  references  to  all  out- 
side authorities.1     It  deserves  a  careful  reading, 
and  a  part  of  the  document  shall  speak  for  itself.2 

xThe  New  York  Independent  says:  "It  is  an  event  unparalleled  during 
the  twenty-five  centuries  since  Gautama,  and  we  can  recall  nothing  anala- 
gous  in  the  history  of  other  world-religions."  Editorial,  December  20, 
1900.  This  appeal  is  printed  in  The  Independent,  December  27,  1900.  W. 
E.  Griffis,  author  of  "The  Religions  of  Japan,"  said  of  this  document:  "The 
Appeal  ought  to  be  read  from  the  Christian  pulpits.  *  I  am  glad 

that  our  government  seems  to  be  acting  in  the  spirit  of  it.  I  believe  it  to 
be  absolutely  necessary  that  not  only  should  Christian  missionaries  have  no 
identification,  and,  if  possible,  no  connection  with  the  intrigues  and  policy 
of  their  Governments,  but  that  they  should  so  live  and  act  that  THE  MOST 

IGNORANT  PEOPLES  should  REALIZE  this  fact." 

221.  2  "We,  the  Buddhists  of  Great  Japan,  beg  to  inform  our   revered 
ecclesiastical  brethren  in  the  world  that,  the  disturbances  in  China  having 


7S  THE    ROAD 

now  reached  their  climax,  there  is  hardly  any  prospect  for  the  restora- 
tion of  the  empire  to  its  former  condition,  and  four  hundred  millions  of 
souls  are  virtually  at  a  loss  to  know  what  course  to  take.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances the  social  distress  as  well  as  moral  corruption  have  now  reached 
a  pitch  too  serious  to  be  described  in  detail.  How  and  when  is  such  a  dis- 
organization to  be  remedied?  How  is  it  possible  for  us  who  have  pledged 
ourselves  to  undertake  the  work  of  salvation  to  remain  silent  with  folded 
hands? 

It  is  indeed  certain  that  the  forms  of  religion  in  the  world  are  manifold. 
But  it  is  equally  certain  that  in  spite  of  the  dissimilarity  of  religions  in 
their  tenets  as  well  as  in  rites — in  short,  in  their  external  organization — 
the  fundamental  principles  embodied  in  what  we  regard  as  the  higher 
classes  of  religion,  to  say  nothing  of  those  which  still  remain  undeveloped, 
are  in  all  cases  essentially,  if  not  entirely,  analagous.  More  particularly 
is  this  the  case  with  all  the  advanced  forms  of  religion  which  are  based 
upon  the  principle  of  love  for  mankind,  and  in  which  the  light  of  this  prin- 
ciple is  utilized  to  destroy  the  darkness  of  life  and  to  deliver  myriads  from 
sin  and  distress,  with  the  avowed  object  of  securing  for  the  world  a  higher 
state  of  happiness  and  prosperity,  which  can  be  attained  by  the  development 
of  humanity  to  the  utmost  perfection.  Such,  indeed,  may  be  the  fundamen- 
tal principle  to  which  the  religion  owes  its  existence — a  principle  by  virtue 
of  which  religion  can  secure  its  firm  footing  and  its  essential  operations. 
That  principle  alone  is,  in  fact,  a  universal  truth,  an  absolute  path  to  fol- 
low; and  if  religion  is  thus  to  stand  on  such  a  general  truth,  its  propagators 
ought  always  to  abide  by  it. 

As  already  remarked,  religion  embodies  a  supreme  path  to  be  followed 
by  men,  and  therefore  the  propagators  of  its  doctrine  ought  never  to  be  dis- 
turbed by  temptations  existing  beyond  the  pale  of  religion.  The  propagand- 
ists of  religion  are  morally  bound  not  to  look  beyond  the  principle  of  uni- 
versal love,  and  the  souls  for  which  salvation  may  be  worked  by  means  of 
these  principles.  *  *  The  great  teachers  of  religion  in  the  olden 

time  have  pertinaciously  adhered  to  the  doctrine  of  universal  love,  and  kept 
their  thoughts  concentrated  on  it.  *  *  *  In  investigating  the  cause  of 
the  anti-religious  spirit  of  the  Chinese,  we  find  that  apprehension  and  terror 
entertained  toward  the  foreign  missionaries  were  virtually  the  origin  of 
their  implacable  hostility.  They  have  perceived  that  these  missionaries 
have  secured  for  themselves  an  immunity  calculated  to  subvert  their  estab- 
lished customs  and  manners;  they  have  also  recognized  in  their  attitude  a 
tendency  to  ignore  the  statutes  of  the  country  and  a  desire  to  accomplish 
the  most  selfish  ends  by  the  oppression  of  the  Chinese  Government  and  peo- 
ple. They  have,  moreover,  supposed  that  the  foreign  evangelists  in  China 
have  arrogated  to  themselves  the  power  of  protecting  the  followers  of  their 
creed  in  utter  disregard  of  the  latter's  criminality  under  the  laws  of  the 
State,  whereas  non-believers,  tho  legally  innocent/were  frequently  entrapped 
into  a  crime.  Under  these  circumstances  they  were  led  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  foreign  missionaries  in  China  have  been  exerting  their  ener- 
gies for  the  accomplishment  of  a  certain  obnoxious  ambition  by  stirring  up 


THE     ROAD  79 

the  unprincipled  rabble  of  the  country,  and  with  this  object  in  view  made 
their  chapels  and  cathedrals  a  sort  of  asylum  for  criminals.  The  Chinese 
began  to  entertain  the  idea  that  the  missionaries  were  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  foreign  policy  of  their  own  countries,  and  that  having  made 
themselves  instrumental  in  carrying  out  the  intrigues  of  their  own  govern- 
ments, they  must  have  labored  for  some  sinister  design,  such  as  the  exten- 
sion of  territory,  along  with  the  development  of  commerce.  They  saw  with 
gross  apprehension  that  in  respect  to  foreign  machinations  the  missionaries 
were  the  first  to  come,  followed  by  consuls,  with  generals  at  their  back;  and 
they  have  feared  that  behind  a  man  who  had  come  with  a  Bible  in  his  hand 
stood  a  warrior  armed  with  a  spear  and  a  sword. 

They  have  apprehended  that  the  result  of  all  these  intrusions  would  be 
claims  for  compensation,  plunder  of  territory,  and  what  not,  the  final  set- 
tlement of  the  affair  being  only  reserved  for  the  country  with  every  indica- 
tion for  its  entire  subversion. 

But  how  is  the  fear  and  apprehension  on  the  part  of  the  Chinese  to  be 
cleared  away?  On  this  question  we  Buddhists  are  prepared  to  submit  two  pro- 
posals to  the  propagators  of  religion  in  the  world  for  their  sincere  acceptance 
and  approval.  The  first  is,  that  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  in  the  world 
should  exercise  their  influence  in  restraining  the  missionaries  in  China 
from  proceedings  which  are  likely  to  create  suspicion  on  the  part  of  the 
Chinese  as  to  the  existence  of  their  secret  connection  with  the  foreign  policy 
of  their  own  countries.  They  should,  for  instance,  be  withheld  from 
inducing  their  own  governments  to  carry  out  schemes  conducive  to  suc- 
cessful aggrandizement  at  the  expense  of  China,  on  the  plea  of  persecution 
inflicted — a  plea  frequently  resorted  to  whenever  more  or  less  suffering  has 
been  inflicted  on  them  by  the  Chinese.  Nor  should  they  be  allowed  to  claim 
compensation  for  damages  incurred,  as  they  have  hitherto  done,  for  nothing 
can  be  more  incompatible  with  the  true  principles  of  religion. 

When  some  time  ago  a  Japanese  Buddhist  temple  at  Amoy  was  burnt  by 
the  Chinese,  we  Buddhists  being  desirous  to  persuade  the  home  government 
to  refrain  from  pressing  the  Chinese  authorities  on  this  particular  account, 
have  renounced  all  claims  for  damage,  and  this  we  did  simply  with  a  view 
to  the  discretion  which  we  ought  to  exercise  in  the  interests  of  religion. 
A  glance  at  history  shows  that  the  great  teachers  of  every  religion  in 
antiquity,  despite  the  persecution  which  they  have  incurred,  have  not  only 
not  displayed  any  spirit  of  hostility  or  vengeance,  but  on  the  contrary  have 
prayed,  with  compassion,  to  have  the  heavenly  blessing  bestowed  upon  the 
persecutors.  It  is  earnestly  to  be  recommended,  therefore,  that  we, 
together  with  all  the  propagators  of  religion  in  the  world,  should  be  pre- 
pared to  inspire  ourselves  with  the  noble  spirit  of  the  ancient  sages,  and 
instead  of  holding  inimical  feelings  against  the  Chinese  who  have  perpe- 
trated so  much  havoc  and  atrocity  upon  the  missionaries,  should  endeavor 
to  do  good  for  evil,  and  to  supplicate  a  permanent  blessing  upon  this  pitiful 
race. 

The  second  proposition  we  have  to  submit  to  our  venerable  brethren 
consists  in  withholding  the  missionaries  in  China  from  all  forms  of  pro- 


80  THE     ROAD 

4.     POINTS  MANIFESTED  IN  THIS  CHAPTER. 

222.  God  is  the  Father  of   the  people  of  all 
countries;   and  is   no    respecter   of    lands    and 
religious  cults,  any  more  than  he  is  of  persons. 

223.  The  religionists  who  are  religious  only 
by  attachment  to   their  cults,  and  who  have  not 
the  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  dishonor  religion. 

224.  From  the  beginning  of  the  human  race, 
men  have  been  saved  as  they  are  now  saved  by 
the  Life  and  Light  of  the  world. 

225.  The  Road  of  God  is  not  a  religion  but  it 
is  the  religion;  and  Road  is  a  name  for  the  Life 
and  Light  wrherever  there  is  godliness. 

226.  War  and  all   cruelties,   and  all  wrongs, 
which  are  practiced  among  men,  are  outside  his 
Kingdom,  and  show  apostacy  from  God. 

227.  The  light  in  Buddhism,  the  same  as  that 
of  Christianity,  shows  the  presence  of  the  Spirit 
of  Jesus;  and  there  are  encouraging  indications 
that  religion  everywhere  will  become  pervaded 
by  the  spirit   of  Life,   until   all   mankind   shall 
find  their  way  to  the  Road  of  God  and  to  Jesus. 

cedure  which  might  possibly  be  regarded  as  disturbing  the  social  institu- 
tions of  China. 

We  Buddhists  desire  respectfully  to  submit  the  above  two  proposals  to 
the  ecclesiastical  authorities  of  all  nations,  with  the  full  conviction  that 
should  they,  in  accordance  with  our  humble  sentiments,  be  willing  to  take 
the  course  proposed  by  us,  the  honest  people  of  China  will  at  once  lay 
aside  all  suspicion  and  apprehension,  and  appreciate  with  delight  the 
intrinsic  virtues  of  religion. 

If  so,  the  ruffians  who  seek  to  accomplish  their  selfish  ends  under  the 
guise  of  converts  will  eventually  become  unable  to  do  anything  toward 
again  disturbing  the  foreign  religion,  and  the  future  of  the  missionaries  in 
China  will  be  as  bright  and  smooth  as  the  ocean  in  spring.  Then,  too,  the 
sources  of  disturbance  in  China  will  become  extinct,  and  a  new  era  of  men- 
tal enlightenment  immediately  dawn  upon  the  Chinese,  with  every  prospect 
of  the  reconciliation  of  the  occidental  and  oriental  civilizations." 


VI 

INGREDIENTS  OF  GOD'S  PERMANENT 
RELIGION 

228.  "I  am  the  Road,  and  the  Truth,  and  the  Life."1 

229.  "Now  abideth  faith,  hope,  love,  these  three;  and  the  greatest  of 
these  is  love." 2 

230.  "0  man,  what  is  good;  and  what  doth  the  LORD  require  of  thee, 
but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God." 3 

231.  "The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  eating  and  drinking  (not  given  to 
forms),  but  righteousness  (uprightness  of  life),  and  peace  (a  brotherhood), 
and  joy  in  the  Holy  Spirit  (spiritually  one  with  God).       For  he  that  herein 
serveth  Christ  is  well-pleasing  to  God,  and  approved  of  men.r  4 

I.     FAITH 

232.  Jesus  joined  his  work  on  to  that   of  the 
Prophets,  and  his  message  rises  like  theirs  above 
the   mists   of  religious   speculation,  and   shines 
forth  life  and  light  upon  them  that  sit  in  dark- 
ness.    Gospel  or  living  faith,  is  a  different  thing 
from  the  speculations  about  which  Christians  dif- 
fer.    Jesus  gives  no  intimation  that  religion  is  to 
be  worked  at  as  a  trade  or  profession,  practiced 
as  a  ceremonial,  guarded  as  authoritative  articles 
of  belief,  or  set  up  as  an  institution.     In  it  men 
find  God  as  their  own  God;  and  the  only  soul- 
destroying  heresy  which  is  taken  account  of  is, 
"denying  the  LORD  that  bought  them." 

233.  There  are  four  necessary  ingredients  of 
religion  which  join  on  to  each  other  as  members 

JJno.  14:6.  2Cor.  13:13. 

3Micah6:8.  4Rom.  14:17,  18. 

5  See  "Philosophy  of  the  Plan  of  Salvation,"  p.  191;  2  Pet.  2:1;  Heb.  6:6. 


82  THE     ROAD 

of  a  body  are  joined  by  one  life;  and  they  are  no 
part  of  the  external  and  particularistic  elements 
of  statutory  religion  or  of  institutional  churches. 
Their  combination  in  characters  makes  simply  a 
Brotherhood,  and  they  are  ingredients  of  Brother- 
hood the  same  as  of  religion.  Jesus'  religion  is 
made  by  the  unity  in  life  of  these  ingredients; 
and  Jesus'  church  is  a  Brotherhood  made  of  these 
same  ingredients,  and  is  not  an  institution  cre- 
ated by  legislation.  Men  like  Brotherhoods,  and 
they  flock  into  them;  and  the  churches  should  be 
stripped  of  everything  except  the  ingredients  of 
Brotherhood.1 

234.  This  living  faith  exactly  corresponds  to 
all  the  other  necessary  faiths  of  life.     Because  it 
is  a  thing  of  life,  the  trust  which  constitutes  a 
marriage,  and  which  through  every  kind  of  trial 
makes  a  happy  home  as  long  as  the  parties  live, 
has  never  been  written  into  a  creed,  and  is  not 
an  external  thing.2     The  faith  of  a  son  in  his 

]  Jesus  used  the  strongest  terms  to  express  to  the  disciples  the  ascend- 
dency  of  the  Brotherhood  idea.  Its  duties  were  put  before  those  to  the 
nearest  relatives,  and  its  bond  of  union  endures  beyond  those  of  an  earthly 
family,  with  which  it  corresponds.  Absolutely  there  is  nothing  to  which 
believers  are  more  rigidly  bound  to  give  heed.  Matt.  12:46-50;  1  Cor.  3:3. 

235.  2  "These  early  Christians  had  no  creed.    They  had  no  membership; 
there  was  no  organization  to  belong  to.     When  a  man  was  converted  he  was 
baptized,  not  as  a  condition  of  joining  the  church,  but  as  a  sign  of  his  con- 
fession of  faith  in  Christ,"  Abbott's  "Life  and  Letters  of  Paul,"  p.  65;  Acts 
16:30-33;  8:36-38;  10:47,  48;  Paragraphs  47,  49. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  Bible  is  no  more  a  creed  than  the  stars  are  an 
astronomy.  It  is  very  certain  that  it  was  made  to  communicate  LIFE,  and 
not  the  set  faith  or  forms  of  a  cult.  It  is  "not  such  a  book  as  man  would 
have  made,  if  he  could:  or  could  have  made,  if  he  would."  General  Grant's 
letter  to  children,  in  the  ''Sunday  School  Times,"  June,  1876,  conveys  so 
much  wisdom  as  to  the  benefits  of  the  Bible,  that  it  ought  to  be  preserved 
forever: — "My  advice  to  Sunday  Schools,  no  matter  what  their  denomina- 
tion, is:  Hold  fast  to  the  Bible  as  the  sheet-anchor  of  your  liberties;  write 


THE     ROAD  88 

father,  no  convention  can  legislate  into  existence 
or  convey  through  writing.  It  would  be  a  con- 
temptible act  and  a  profane  intrusion,  to  treat  as 
an  external  and  statutory  thing  the  living  faith 
of  a  patriot,  who  leaves  his  family  and  business, 
where  in  all  his  history  there  has  never  been  a 
single  neglect,  and  goes  to  die  for  his  country. 
The  thoughtful  reader  will  see  in  these  instances 
the  difference  between  a  living  faith,  belief,  con- 
fidence, or  trust,  and  that  faith  which  is  written 
out  as  opinions  or  resolutions,  or  which  depends 
upon  externals,  or  which  is  legislated  into  exist- 
ence; a  thing  of  the  head  and  not  of  the  heart.1 
236.  It  was  in  this  vital  matter  of  faith  that 
the  Grseco-Roman,  Christian  church  broke  away 
from  the  Road  of  Jesus.  It  substituted  a  cultus 
for  a  living  relation.  A  living  faith  which  joins 
the  soul  of  a  believer  to  Jesus  in  a  life  with  God. 
as  two  souls  by  trust  in  each  other  are  joined  in 
a  marriage,  was  substituted  for  belief  in  an 
authoritative  creed.  A  living  belief  in  Christ 
was  changed  for  belief  in  a  Christology.  The 
living  faith  of  a  Brotherhood,  which  represents 
on  earth  the  peace  and  fellowship  of  heaven, 
where  divers  opinions  may  exist  as  they  did  in 
a  community  of  Jews  and  Gentiles  or  as  they 
exist  in  many  affectionate  families,  was 
exchanged  for  organized  ecclesiasticism  and  loy- 
alty to  a  church  institution.  Obedience  to  an 

its  precepts  in  your  HEARTS,  and  practice  them  in  your  LIVES.  To  the 
influence  of  this  book  we  are  indebeted  for  ALL  THE  PROGRESS  MADE  IN  TRUE 
CIVILIZATION,  and  to  this  we  must  look  as  our  guide  in  the  future.  'Right- 
eousness exalteth  a  nation,  but  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any  people/  Paragraph 

.  10:10. 


84  THE     ROAD 

institutional  church  took  the  place  of  personal 
piety,  and  the  observance  of  ordinances  was  sub- 
stituted for  humility  and  philanthropy.1 

238.  All  the  ordinances  and  other  outside 
things,  about  which  Christians  have  so  disagreed, 
are  related  to  the  Road  only  as  pitchers  and  pails 
are  related  to  the  water  which  we  drink.  They 
are  not  ingredients  of  the  water,  may  be  used  in 
any  style,  and  there  are  oceans  of  water  for  the 
world  outside  of  them.  A  right  definition  of 
religion,  as  "a  moral  union  of  man  to  God 

237.  1  When  Paul  wrote  letters  to  the  churches  there  was  no  such 
thing  in  existence  as  the  organizations  which  we  now  know  by  that  name. 
The  word  "church,"  therefore,  in  the  New  Testament,  does  not  stand  at  all 
for  such  churches  as  these  in  which  we  hold  membership.  Christ  had  no 
parish  and  formed  no  ecclesiastical  organization;  prescribed  no  creed  nor 
anything  like  a  creed.  "As  he  neither  framed  an  organization,  formulated 
a  creed  nor  established  a  ritual,  so  he  appointed  no  officers."  The  name 
apostle  signifies  "sent,"  and  it  was  applied  to  the  men  whom  Jesus  sent  out 
into  the  villages,  while  he  preached  in  the  cities.  "Once,  in  Perea,  a 
larger  district,  with  more  scattered  and  diverse  population,  he  appointed 
seventy  to  go,  two  by  two,  on  a  similar  itinerant  mission."  The  idea,  in 
each  case,  was  to  supply  a  temporary  need.  What  has  since  been  done  to 
perfect  and  to  make  permanent  organizations,  is  purely  man's  own  work. 
Man  can  do  as  he  pleases  in  these  matters,  but  he  has  no  right  to  claim 
Divine  authority  for  that  which  is  of  his  own  doing. 

The  clergy  is  an  institution  of  the  Christian  church  which  had  no  exis- 
tence in  the  church  of  Jesus;  and  it  is  a  serious  fact  for  those  to  consider 
who  seek  to  become  Doctors  of  DIVINITY  and  to  occupy  the  CHIEF  SEATS, 
that  to  no  other  class  than  the  one  to  which  they  correspond  did  Jesus  ever 
say,  "Ye  serpents,  ye  generation  of  vipers,  ye  blind  guides."  The  Brethren 
of  a  community  managed  church  matters  much  as  public  school  matters 
are  now  managed.  The  duties  of  those  who  were  put  forward  to  meet 
special  responsibilities,  like  school  superintendents  or  graded  teachers,  are 
described  in  the  pastoral  Epistles,  and  pertain  for  the  most  part  to  matters  of 
conduct  and  sobriety.  No  mention  is  made  of  sacraments,  ordinations  and 
officialism  as  they  are  now  used  to  distinguish  the  clergy,  Matt.  20:26-28; 
Luke  11:43;  12:1;  18:11;  20:46;  King's  "Cry  of  Christendom,"  p.  85,  204; 
Abbott's  "Life  and  Letters  of  Paul,"  ch.  iv;  Mosheim's  "Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory," Vol.  I,  p.  38;  McGiffert's  "Apostolic  Age,"  p.  548,  636;  Maurice's 
"Theological  Essays,"  p.  477. 


THE     ROAD  85 

expressed  by  conscious  love  and  worship/'1  abso- 
lutely annihilates  the  notion  of  the  faith-making 
possibilities  of  any  legislating  body,  or  of  outside 
institutions  or  forms. 

239.  Faith"  is  a  living    principle  by  personal 
relationship  to  Jesus,  the  definition  of  which  no 
man  can  write  out  so  as  to  say,  this  is  the  thing. 
It  can  be  trusted  to  make  a  united  church   of 
universal  Brotherhood,  exactly  as  love  of  persons 
is  trusted  to  make  domestic  relations  and  lidelity, 
and  to  perpetuate  patriotism.    The  Gospel,  there- 
fore, is  not  like  other  positive  religions,  which 
contain  statutory  and   particularistic   elements, 
but  it  is  religion  itself. 

240.  The  Person  Christ  is  the  central  point  of 
the   Gospel;2  but  belief  in  him  is  not  a  thing 


1  Prof.  Henry  B.  Smith's  definition,  Union  Theological  Seminary. 
241.  2  Books  like  Carlyle's  "Heroes  and  Hero  Worship,"  show  how  man- 
kind unite  about  persons.  There  is  more  of  the  union  of  Brethren  among  the 
churches  now  than  formerly,  because  the  personal  Jesus  is  spoken  of  more 
and  creeds  less.  God's  plan  is  that  the  world  shall  become  Brethren  joined 
together  about  the  Person  of  Christ. 

"I  would,  dear  Jesus,  I  could  break 

The  hedge  that  creeds  and  hearsay  make; 

And,  like  thy  first  disciples,  be 

In  person  led  and  taught  by  thee. 

I  read  thy  words  so  strong,  so  sweet, 

I  seek  the  footprints  of  thy  feet; 

But  men  so  mystify  the  trace, 

I  long  to  see  thee  face  to  face. 

Would'st  thou  not  let  me  at  thy  side, 

In  thee,  in  thee,  so  sure  confide? 

Like  John,  upon  thy  breast  recline 

And  feel  thy  heart  make  mine  divine?"— JOHN  D.  LONG. 
James  Martineau  calls  attention  to  the  wrongs  which  have  been  done  in 
the  name  of  "Fraternity,"  "Studies  of  Christianity,"  p.  311.      "Brother- 
hoods" are  built  over  the  smoldering  coals  of  selfish  passions,  bounded  by 
social  and  political  convenience,  the  hiding  places  of  envy  and  egotism, 


86  THE     ROAD 

apart  from  belief  in  God.  They  are  not  two 
beliefs.  He  is  the  manifestation  of  the  Father 
and  the  way  to  the  Father,  and  to  love  him  is  to 
love  the  Father.  To  love  man  is  also  to  love  the 
Father,  who  made  and  loves  man.  To  love  those 
who  love  God  as  brethren,  manifests  that  we  are 
of  the  household  of  the  Father,  who  loves  the 
family.  The  love  to  God,  and  to  Christ,  and  to  all 
the  good,  satisfies  an  instinctive  longing  for  a 
personal  center  for  our  love,  for  men  cannot  be 
happy,  apart  from  each  other,  and  never  have 
found  satisfaction  in  life  apart  from  God.  The 
excessive  love  of  things  inclines  the  heart  away 
from  God.1  There  is  a  world  love  which  is  idola- 
try, and  it  degrades;  but  the  love  of  persons  has 
no  such  effect,  and  it  opens  up  the  heart  to  God. 
Love  and  faith  in  their  highest  exercise  do  not 
divide  off  into  parts,  so  much  of  one  and  so  much 
of  another,  but  they  join  together  about  persons, 
and  give  their  combined  support  to  all  natural 
relations,  as  every  home  circle  shows. 

242.  As  the  Gospel  does  not,  like  a  cultus. 
grow  the  fruit  of  separating  beliefs  or  forms,  the 
New  Testament  is  remarkably  free  from  e very- 
standing  over  against  mankind  outside  the  narrow,  unjust,  self-seeking 
compacts.  They  show  not  brotherhood,  but  the  WANT  of  faith  in  man  and 
brotherhood.  The  great  patriot  and  scholar,  William  H.  Seward,  said  that 
he  never  joined  a  secret  society  because  he  would  not  put  himself  where  he 
might  be  tempted  to  do  an  act  for  which  society  might  not  be  able  to  hold 
him  accountable. 

In  a  Brotherhood  with  Jesus  there  is  no  possibility  of  injustice  and 
wrong.  The  selfish  fraternities,  which  are  a  menace  to  those  outside  their 
membership,  the  same  as  sectarian  churches,  show  the  need  of  the  real 
Brotherhood.  "The  first  aspect  in  which  Christianity  presented  itself  to  the 
world  was  as  a  declaration  of  the  fraternity  of  men  in  Christ."  Lecky's 
"History  of  European  Morals/'  Vol.  II,  p.  19. 

1 1  John  2:15;  4:20,  21. 


THE     ROAD  87 

thing  which  divides  people.  There  is  in  it  no 
catechism,  systematic  creed,  set  of  articles,  con- 
fession of  faith,  liturgy,  or  forms  of  administer- 
ing sacraments.  Take  out  of  the  existing 
churches  what  is  not  in  the  New  Testament,  and 
they  would  be  left  without  divisions,  and  be  sim- 
ply one  Brotherhood.  Christ  is  the  head  of 
his  own  Church;  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  an  abiding  presence;  and  a  life  with  God  which 
leads  one  to  love  what  God  loves  and  to  hate 
what  God  hates,1  stands  over  against  the  faith  in 
external  things. 

2.     LOVE. 

244.  Love  is  the  motive  principle  of  faith,  and 
the  second  ingredient  of  a  world   religion.      No 
religion  can  exist  without  these  two  ingredients. 
Faith  is  a  propeller  to  action,  for  unless  a  man 
believes  a  thing  safe  or  possible  he  will  not  give 
himself  to   its    accomplishment.       The    motive 
determines  whether  it  is  religious  faith  or  not, 
for  all  religious  faith  does  its  work  from  love  as 
its  motive.      Faith  and  love  make  a  religion  of 
force  and  power. 

245.  The  command  to   the   disciples  was   to 
tarry  at  Jerusalem  until  they  were  "endued  with 
power  from  on  high;"2  and  when  that  power  came 
it  was  love,  and  it  made  the  three  thousand  peo- 

243.  Thomas  Arnold,  the  great  teacher,  said  that  he  never  was  cer- 
tain of  a  boy  who  said  simply  tint  he  loved  the  good;  but  he  was  certain 
of  him  when  he  also  said  that  he  hated  the  bad.  Anyone  who  loves  what 
God  loves  and  hates  what  God  hates,  is  a  regenerated  man;  and  neither 
the  love  nor  the  hate  stands  alone  in  a  godly  character.  Regeneration,  in 
its  outworking,  embodies  all  reform  that  is  of  God,  bringing  all  into  similar- 
ity of  feeling  with  him. 

2  Luke  24:49. 


88  THE     ROAD 

pie,  of  seventeen  different  nations,  "of  one  heart 
and  of  one  soul."  l  The  topic  of  Chalmer's  great- 
est sermon  was,  "The  Expulsive  Power  of  a  New 
Affection,"2  and  no  principle  works  so  mightily 
to  save  one's  life  from  the  ruin  of  sin  as  right 
loves.3  In  order  that  men  may  be  men,  it  is  not 
knowledge  that  is  needed  so  much  as  power;  and 
nothing  but  the  power  of  love  can  work  into 
men's  characters  patience,  kindness,  generosity, 
humility,  courtesy,  unselfishness,  good  temper, 
guilelessness,  and  sincerity.4  Paul's  great  word 
was  faith,  but  when  he  considered  the  regener- 
ating and  transforming  power  of  love,  he  declared 
it  to  be  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world. 

246.  The  texts  relating  to  love  in  the  New 
Testament  are  marvelous  as  to  their  number  and 
their  clean-cut  emphasis.  Was  it  not  for  the 
sake  of  emphasis  that  Jesus  called  the  love, 
which  he  had  himself  exemplified,  a  New  Com- 
mandment?5 Every  Jew  understood  that  the 
commandments  of  Moses'  law  embodied  the 
heart  of  religion;  and  so  Jesus,  by  using  the  term 
"commandment,"  pointed  to  the  heart  of  his 
religion.  In  wording  the  new  commandment  he 
made  love  the  only  badge  of  a  disciple;  "By  this 
shall  all  men  know  tliat  ye  are  my  disciples.'7 
It  is  strange,  in  view  of  the  common  practice  of 


'Acts  1:46;  4:32. 

2Chalraer's  Sermons,  Vol.  II,  p.  271. 

3Bmce's  "St.  Paul's  Conception  of  Christianity,"  p.  235.  Faith,  the 
same  as  love,  has  a  moral  energy. 

4 1  Cor.  13:1-13.  All  these  virtues  are  named  by  the  Apostle  in  this 
remarkable  analysis  of  love,  verses  4-6.  See  "Drummond's  Addresses," 
chap.  1,  "The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World." 

*Jno.  13:34,  35;  Jno.  17:21. 


THE    ROAD  89 

wearing  badges,  that  Christians  have  not  resorted 
to  some  such  way  of  designating  themselves. 
But  Jesus  ordered  no  badge  to  be  worn  but  love, 
and  by  means  of  that  the  world  is  to  be  converted. 
He  made  this  clear  in  the  commandment;  and, 
if  possible,  even  more  clear  in  his  prayer: — "tio 
that  the  world  may  believe."  Not  "civilization" 
or  a  creed,  but  love,  is  to  convert  the  world  to 
Jesus. 

247.  It  is  not  known  as  it  should  be  that  the 
Greek  word  agapee,   the  special  word  for  love, 
belongs  to  the  Gospel;  and  it  was  prepared  by 
Providence,   like   the   name   Road,   for  its  high 
office.     It  was  first  used  a  few  times  in  the  Greek 
translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  made  about 
three  hundred  years  before  Christ,  but  it  is  not 
found  in  any  profane  Greek  writings.     It  is  used 
in  the  New  Testament  one  hundred  and  fourteen 
times;  and  it  is  clearly  made  known  as  a  ruling 
principle   of   life.1     It  denotes   the   love  which 
chooses   its  object  with   decision  of  will,  so  it 
becomes  self-denying  or  compassionate  devotion 
to  and  for  its  object. 

248.  l  The  sweeping  statement  of  Paul  is: — "Love  is  the  FULFILLING  of 
the  Law,"  Rom.  13:10.     Peter  said,  "ABOVE  ALL  THINGS  have  fervent  love 
among  yourselves,"  1  Peter  4:8;  1  Jno.  4:8. 

Prof.  Cremer,  in  his  "Biblico-Theological  Lexicon,"  p.  16,  calls  attention 
to  the  fact  that  "both  Paul  and  John  assign  to  love  the  same  central  posi- 
tion as  the  DISTINCTIVE  PECULIARITY  of  the  Christian  life,  and  he  notes  this 
difference  between  them:  John  uses  the  term  agapee  to  designate  not  only 
our  actions  toward  our  fellow  men,  but  also  our  actions  toward  God  ai±d  his 
revelation  in  Christ,  1  Jno.  2:5,  15;  3:17;  4:17;  while  in  Paul's  many  letters 
only  once  is  the  relation  of  men  to  God  expressed  by  this  word,  2  Thess. 
3:5.  In  all  other  cases  THE  LOVE  THE  WORD  INDICATES  is  EXERCISED 
TOWARD  MEN.  It  should  be  noted,  also,  that  John  connected  love  to  God 
with  love  to  man,  1  Jno.  4:20;  while  Paul  connected  it  with  faith,  Rom. 
10:10.  The  close  relation  of  faith  and  love  should  always  be  kept  in  mind, 
for  either  one  is  worthless  and  cannot  exist  without  the  other. 


90  THE     ROAD 

249.  Jesus  declared  that  love  to  God  and  love 
to  man  were  primary  principles  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment religion,  and  that  the  Law  hung  on  them.1 
In  the  higher  meaning  of  this  New  Testament 
word,   the  love   to   man   springs   from   a  heart 
renewed  and  possessed  with  the  love  of  God,  and 
is  the  same  in  kind  as  God's  love  in  redemption.2 
This  love  to  man  is  conditioned  upon  and  grows 
out  of  the  love  to  God,  so  that  the  two  loves  to 
God  and  to  man  are  the  same  love,  and  are  not 
two  separate  principles.3      This  high  meaning  of 
the  relationship  of  believers  to  each  other,  and 
and  of  their  common  relation  to  God,  was  cele- 
brated in  the  early  churches  at  love-feasts,  which 
were  common  festivals  of  friendship,  where  the 
Lord's    Supper   was   celebrated   and  gifts  were 
made  to  the  poor.4 

250.  The  ingredients  of  religion,  which  are 
faith,  love,  worship  and  righteousness,  are  com- 
mon to  all  the  ten  great  religions  of  the  world; 
but  love  has  not  the  high  meaning  in  any  one  of 
them  that  it  has  in  the  Gospel.      In  the  light  of 
this  fact,  how  extremely  dreadful  is  the  practice 
of  war,  intemperance,  and  the  many  forms  of 
cruelty.      The  power  of  the  early  church  in  the 
Roman   Empire   was  owing  to  their  consistent 
practice   of  love.     Through   St.  Paul's  work  to 
plant  a  kingdom   of  peace  and   unity,  without 
national  or  other  limitations,  and  with  the  ingre- 

Matt.  22:40.     The  Golden  Rule,  also,  is  the  Law  and  the  Prophets, 
Matt.  7:12. 

;John  3:16;  1  John  3:14;  4:12, 16. 

3Cremer's  "Lexicon  of  the  New  Testament  Greek,"  p.  16;  and 
graph  248. 

'TThlhorn's  "Conflict  of  Christianity  with  Heathenism/'  p.  163; 


THE     ROAD  91 

dients  of  Jesus'  religion,  a  new  power  was  intro- 
duced into  the  Roman  Empire,1  which  many 
were  glad  to  welcome  and  to  insert  into  their 
civilization. 

3-     WORSHIP. 

251.  Entrance  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ  is  on 
the  sole  ground  of  love  to  the  King;  and  where 
there   is  love,   knowledge   will   be  attained    by 
experience.      One  who  loves  his  Master  will  not 
deny  him;  and  there  is  no  danger  by  heresy.2 
Good  men  of  long  experience  sympathize  with 
the  saintly  Whipple,  who  said: — "As  the  grave 
grows  nearer  my  theology  grows  strangely  sim- 
ple, and  it  begins  and  ends  with  Christ  as  the 
only   refuge   of  the  lost."3     The   incorporation 
with  Christ  in  a  unity  of  love  and  life,  is  the 
basis   of   the    higher,   spiritual   worship   of    the 
Gospel. 

252.  Spiritual  communion  with  God,  by  faith 
in  Christ,  alone  constitutes  the  essence  of  the 
religion  of  the  New  Testament.4      Many  are  dis- 
turbed in   their  simple   trust   on   the   personal 
Jesus  by  the  talk  of  those  who  are  wise  beyond 
what  is  written.    They  use  language  about  Jesus, 
the  meaning  of  which  they  do  not  themselves 
understand.    Goethe  reproves  the  folly  of  talking 
doubts,  thus: — :"Give  me  the  benefit  of  your  faith, 
if  you  have  any,  but  keep  your  doubts  to  your- 
self; I  have  enough  of  my  own."     Do  not  trouble 
over  the  theologies  of  other  people,  but  have 

1  Bruce's  "St.  Paul's  Conception  of  Christianity,"  p.  105. 

2  Parker's  "Ecce  Deus,"  pp.  118,  119. 

3 1  Tim.  1:15;  Farrar's  "Life  of  St.  Paul,"  Vol.  II,  p.  188-191. 
4Gieseler*s  "Church  History"'  Vol.  I,  p.  86. 


92  THE     ROAD 

quietly  for  yourself  a  whole-hearted  faith  in  your 
heavenly  Father  and  in  your  compassionate 
Savior.1 

254.  The  living  faith  of  the  Gospel,  energetic 
through  love,  leads  directly  to  worship;  and  it  is 
easily  seen  that  one  who  lacks  the  disposition  to 
worship  God,  whatever  his  knowledge  and  pro- 
fessions  may  be,  is  certainly  without  religion. 
Other  things  are  incidental  in  one's  experience 
and  duties;  but  faith,  love  and  worship  are  per- 
manent and  essential  ingredients  of  religion. 

255.  Each  of  these  ingredients  is  such  a  thing 
of  life,  and  is  so  clearly  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  that 
it  cannot  be  made  a  part  of  human  invention  or 
church  fittings.      Jesus  said  in  substance  to  the 
woman  of  Samaria:  —  No  more  with  the  institu- 
tions, cults,  and   sacraments  of  Jerusalem  and 
Mount  Gerizim,  does  the  Father  associate  wor- 
ship; but  worshipers  are  wherever  there  is  found 
spirit  and   truth   in   worship;    "for  the   Father 
seeketh  such  to  worship  him."'      This  was  the 
first  great  announcement  of  world  worship  and 


253.  ^om.  14:22.  One  is  perfectly  happy  in  sunlight  because  he 
knows  that  IT  CAN  BE  RELIED  UPON,  even  if  he  knows  no  facts  of  the  sun's 
nature,  or  of  the  composition  of  its  light.  It  was  the  point  of  the  manna 
training,  and  is  the  point  of  about  all  other  teaching  of  God,  that  we  should 
COME  ABSOLUTELY  TO  RELY  UPON  HIM,  Paragraph  133.  Belief  as  a  process 
will  work  out  in  us  such  a  reliance.  It  is  the  secret  of  a  happy  growing 
religious  life,  to  fix  as  a  habit,  RELIANCE  UPON  GOD,  DAY  BY  DAY,  AND  IN 
ALL  THINGS.  Without  particular  thought,  and  by  a  habit  of  mind  which 
excludes  all  doubt,  we  rely  upon  the  rising  of  the  sun  EAC  3  DAY  ;  and  so 
should  we  believe  in  God  EACH  DAY;  and  we  must  keep  on  in  the  process  of 
believing  until  our  hearts  are  fixed  in  the  habit,  Ps.  5:7,  and  God,  like  the 
sun,  is  relied  upon.  It  is  the  greatest  blessing  in  this  life  to  have  such  a 
religion.  Jesus  compares  it  to  a  "treasure"  and  a  "pearl  of  great  price." 
Matt.  11:30;  13:44,  46;  1  Tim.  4:8. 

2Jno.  4:23,  24;  Matt.  12:7. 


THE     ROAD  98 

of  the  spirituality  of  religion;  for  it  went  beyond 
Isaiah,  who  is  credited  with  having  given  the 
first  declaration  of  independence  of  spiritual 
religion  from  national  control  and  political  forms 
and  life.1  Till  then  no  one  had  dreamed  of  a 
fellowship  of  faith,  and  love,  and  worship,  disso- 
ciated from  all  forms,  and  simply  a  Brotherhood. 
Jesus'  saying,  "In  spirit  and  in  truth,"  twice 
repeated  to  the  Samaritan,  meant  religion  with- 
out its  being  an  institution.  Until  Jesus  spoke, 
there  was  no  authority  for  a  church  which  is 
nothing  more  than  a  Community  of  Brethren. 

4.     RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

256.  In  the  Gospel,  faith,  love,  worship  and 
righteousness  are  the  ingredients  of  its  religion. 
They  are  related  to  a  Person  who  is  the  Life  and 
Light  of  men.  They  have  to  be  lived  in  order  to 
be  known,  the  same  as  love  of  home  and  love  of 
country.  They  cannot  be  measured  out  and 
handed  over,  as  things  apart  from  ourselves;  nor 
can  they  be  defined,  any  more  than  life  can  be 
defined.  God  made  the  word  "flesh,"  and  he 
"dwelt  among  us/'  in  order  to  show  the  univer- 
sality of  the  Father's  love  and  the  impartiality  of 
religion,  as  it  never  could  have  been  shown  by 
any  other  means.  It  takes  a  life  to  reveal  what 
a  thing  of  life  is.  Infinitely  beyond  the  message 
of  any  letter,  we  are  led  to  understand  by  the 
Life  of  Jesus  the  meaning  of  faith,  love,  worship, 
and  righteousness.  He  gave  an  object  lesson  of 
these  ingredients  of  religion.  He  lives  in  the 
living  faith  of  mankind,  without  awakening  the 

1  See  Robertson  Smiths's  note  on  Isaiah  8,  in  "Expositor's  Bible." 


94  THE     ROAD 

slightest  suspicion  of  distinction  or  partiality; 
and  reproves  the  thoughts  of  the  evil-minded, 
fights  the  battles  of  the  tempted,  imparts  courage 
to  the  suffering,  gives  hope  to  the  despairing, 
and,  when  no  longer  a  loving  hand  can  minister, 
he  comforts  the  dying.1 

258.  The  entrance  of  Christ's  life  into  the 
lives  of  struggling  and  earnest  men.  as  his  spirit 
shines  down  upon  them  to  turn  darkness  into 
light,  makes  the  combination  of  religion  and 
morality,  which  in  the  New  Testament  is  called 
righteousness.  Where  religion  and  morality 
combine  no  one  can  tell,  any  more  than  he  can 
tell  where  the  ingredients  of  religion  combine. 
Their  blending  as  elements  of  the  same  life,  illus- 
trated in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  where  ethics 
and  religion  are  joined  at  the  root,  Prof.  Harnack 
calls  humility,  and  he  says  of  it,  that,  it  is  not  a 

257.  l  The  real  creed  of  the  Road  is  Jesus  himself.  To  him  we  come, 
and  salvation  is  by  believing  ON  HIM,  Acts  16:31.  Not  by  joining  a  church 
but  by  joining  the  LORD,  do  we  find  our  way  to  the  true  religion,  Jer.  50:5. 
"Come  unto  me,"  said  Jesus,  Matt.  11:28;  "I  am  the  Light  of  the  World," 
Jno.  8:12;  "The  true  light  which  lighteth  every  man,"  Jno.  1:9;  "I  am  the 
Road,  the  Truth  and  the  Life;  no  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  me," 
Jno.  14:6;  "In  him  was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men,"  Jno.  1:4; 
"He  that  belie veth  on  the  Son  hath  everlasting  life;  and  he  that  believeth 
not  the  Son  shall  not  see  Life,"  Jno.  3:36;  "Ye  will  not  come  to  me,  that 
that  ye  might  have  life,"  Jno.  5:40;  "I  am  the  Bread  of  Life,"  Jno.  6:35. 
The  New  Testament  is  full  of  passages  of  kindred  meaning;  and  it  is  Jesus 
Christ  Personally  that  is  meant,  and  not  a  creed  about  him.  Unity  about 
a  person  held  such  a  commanding  place  in  the  churches  of  the  Apostles, 
that  contentions  about  doctrines  were  almost  entirely  lost  sight  of:  Believ- 
ing, in  its  Bible-meaning,  is  not  simply  an  act  but  a  process,  which  goes  on 
through  life;  and  its  experience  is  like  that  of  domestic  life,  which  is  better 
understood  and  becomes  more  real  as  years  pass  by.  People  so  different 
as  were  the  Jews  and  Gentiles  in  the  Apostolic  churches  never  could  have 
been  united  in  any  way  except  about  a  Person.  Belief  in  Jesus  unites, 
while  that  of  creeds  and  opinions  separates.  See  Feuerbach's  "Essence  of 
Christianity,"  p.  48;  John  Young's  "Life  and  Light  of  Men,"  p.  336-355. 


\ 
1    UNIVERSITY   ) 

THE  "ROAD  95 

virtue  in  itself  but  the  opening  up  of  the  heart 
to  God,  an  abiding  disposition  toward  the  good, 
and  that  out  of  it  everything  good  grows.  The 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  "carried  morality  to  the 
sublimest  point  attained,  or  even  attainable  by 
humility/'  its  "great  theme  being  the  righteous- 
ness required  of  those  who  would  be  members  of 
the  new  kingdom."1  At  its  beginning  are  the 
marvelous  Beatitudes,  the  central  one  of  which 
relates  to  the  desire  for  righteousness;  and  the 
sermon  as  a  whole  abounds  in  examples  of  what 
true  righteousness  in  principle  and  in  act  leads  to. 

259.  Other  books  describe  the  special  mean- 
ings of  the  term  righteousness;2  but  we  have  in 
mind  here,  that  practical  moral  goodness  which 
is  so  necessary  in  all  the  relations  of  life.     Where 
Paul  used  the  term  with  this  meaning,  he  meant 
moral  goodness  as  it  appears  in  the  life  of  Jesus: 
"Who  of  God  is  made  unto  us  wisdom,  and  right- 
eousness, and   sanctification,  and  redemption."' 

1  Prof.  Stewart  in  "Bible  Readers'  Manual,"  and  Paragraph  333. 

260.  2Prof.  Bush's  "St.  Paul's   Conception   of  Christianity,"  p.  146; 
Prof.  McGiffert's  "Apostolic  Age,"  p.  144. 

Any  view  that  we  may  take  of  righteousness  brings  us  up  squarely 
against  the  fact  of  SIN.  Jesus  recognized  this  by  his  teaching  of  right- 
eousness in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  where,  at  every  turn  of  the  thought, 
he  refers  to  sin  in  some  form.  "If  there  is  anything  within  the  compass  of 
heaven  and  earth  which  we  can  be  said  to  know  from  ourselves,  and  to  have 
no  need  that  another  shall  tell  us,  it  is  the  nature  of  sin.  There  is  no 
arrogance,  there  is  only  sorrowful  confession,  in  protesting  that  THIS  is  a 
matter  on  which  we  cannot  be  mistaken.  It  is  the  nearest  of  all  things  to 
us,  the  clinging  presence  that  penetrates  the  very  folds  of  our  nature,  and 
is  known  only  from  within,  where  its  fibres  strike  and  draw  their  nutriment," 
Martineau's  "Studies  of  Christianity,"  468. 

31  Cor.  1:30.  "Paulinism  stands  in  the  closest  opposition  to  all  merely 
natural  moralism,  all  righteousness  of  works,  all  religious  ceremonialism, 
all  Christianity  without  Christ,"  Prof.  Harnack's  "History  of  Dogma,"  Vnl. 
I,  p.  135-,  See  Paragraphs  68,  263. 


96  THE    ROAD 

This  text  was  meant  to  have  an  ethical  meaning, 
and  it  covers  the  whole  group  or  class  of  moral 
influences  by  which  we  live  and  are  finally 
brought  to  heaven;  for  we  become  wise,  righteous, 
sanctified  and  redeemed  through  Jesus.1  All  the 
teaching  of  the  New  Testament  gathers  about 
these  ingredients  of  God's  religion.  Doctrine,  in 
its  theological  meaning,  is  not  taught  for  the 
sake  of  doctrine,  but  the  teaching  has  reference 
to  life  by  the  making  or  improvement  of  faith, 
love,  worship  and  righteousness.  Because  these 
have  a  strictly  spiritual  and  inward  attitude  the 
Gospel  is  not  a  teaching  about  religion  but  it  is 
religion  itself. 

261.  Righteousness  is  the  great  word  of  the 
Old  Testament,  but  the  meaning  which  Jesus' 
life  gives  to  it,  makes  it  a  greater  word  in  the 
New  Testament.  Its  good  works  are  intended 
to  "shine  before  men/72  and  make  the  disciple 
"approved  of  men;3  and  by  them  we  are  to  be 
"known  and  read  of  all  men,4  and  thus  be  "a 
peculiar  people  zealous  of  good  works." ]  God's 
Koad  is  a  road  of  righteousness;6  an  object  of 
the  discipline  of  life  is  to  perfect  us  in  righteous- 
ness;7 and  righteousness  is  the  evidence  we  give 
to  others  that  we  have  been  born  of  God;s  and 
"whosoever  doeth  not  righteousness  is  not  of 
God;"9  for  the  kingdom  of  God  is  righteousness, 
peacableness  and  godliness,  by  which  one  is  able 
to  serve  Christ  and  to  be  acceptable  to  God.10 

1 1  Pet.  2:21,  22;  Matt.  6:33;  Jno.  8:12,  2Matt.  5:16. 

3  Rom.  14:18.  4  2  Cor.  3:2,  3,  5  Titus  2:14. 

6 1  Peter  2:24.  7  James  3:17, 18;  Heb.  12:14. 

8Heb.  12:11;  1  Jno.  2:29.  91  Jno.  3:10;  Matt.  10:42;  Eph.  2:10. 

10  Rom.  14:17-19;  Eph.  5:8-11;  1  Tim.  6:11. 


THE    ROAD  97 

5.     POINTS  MANIFESTED  IN  THIS  CHAPTER. 

262.  Its  permanent  ingredients  of  faith,  love, 
worship  and  righteousness,  exhibit  religion  as  a 
practical  force  of  life  in  operation  among  men. 

263.  These  ingredients  involve  all  the  virtues 
and   exercises  of  religion;  such   as   repentance, 
yielding  of  self,  forgiveness,  regeneration,  recon- 
ciliation, justification,  humility,  peace,  hope,  the 
exercises  of  prayer,  and  sanctification. 

264.  We  know  of  these  ingredients  in  their 
most  perfect  development  by  means  of  the  Bible, 
and  especially  by  the  life  of  Jesus;  but  the  Spirit 
of  God,  the  Life  and  Light  of  the  world,  and  the 
light  of  nature,  shine   them  down  also  through 
all  the  Providential  religions  of  the  lands  of  the 
earth,  as  the  sun  shines  in  all  lands;  so  that  no 
people  are  entirely  without  the  ingredients  of 
religion,  any   more  than  they  are  without  the 
light  of  the  sun,  moon  and  stars. 

265.  These  ingredients   are  God's   means   of 
seeking  man,  and  they  also  are  man's  means  of 
finding  God;  and  they  are  the  means  to  both  God 
and  man  of  an  eternal  relation  by  a  moral  union 
of  man  to  God,  which  is  religion  itself. 

266.  These    ingredients    as    principles    of    a 
human  life,  involve  nothing  to  create  differences 
among  men,  but  as  they  unite  in  themselves,  they 
are  the  only  operations  by  which  mankind  are 
made  into  the  Brotherhood  Church  of  Jesus;  and 
by  them  people  of  all  races  and  classes  are  made 
Brethren. 

267.  By  the  relation  of  these  ingredients,  and 
by  their  inseparable   companionship  about  the 
Person  of  Jesus,  as  the  members  of  his  religion, 


98  THE    ROAD 

religion  and  morality  are  combined;  so  that  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  has  to  be  preached  in  order 
to  preach  Jesus  and  the  Cross. 

Consider  now  how  simple  is  the  Road,  so  simple 
that  a  child  who  trusts  and  loves  and  reverences 
and  obeys  his  parents  can  understand  its  ingredi- 
ents. They  are  things  of  life  which  any  man  can 
understand,  for  the  same  reasons  that  he  knows 
that  he  is  a  sinner  and  needs  to  be  saved,  or 
knows  that  he  trusts  and  loves  and  honors  and 
regards  his  family  or  his  countrymen.  To  save 
mankind,  and  to  make  of  this  world  a  Kingdom 
of  the  Heavens,  and  a  Family  of  Brethren,  how 
much  better  is  this  simple  religion,  and  these 
living  ingredients  of  actual  life,  than  assent  to 
any  external  or  outside  forms  set  up  by  any  stat- 
utory religion  or  by  any  institutional  church  on 
earth. 


0  brother  man!  fold  to  thy  heart  thy  brother; 

Where  pity  dwells,  the  peace  of  God  is  there; 
To  worship  rightly  is  to  love  each  other, 

Each  smile  a  hymn,  each  kindly  deed  a  prayer. 
Follow  with  reverent  steps  the  great  example 

Of  Him  whose  holy  work  was  *  doing  good;' 
So  shall  the  wide  earth  seem  our  Father's  tempi  , 

Each  loving  life  a  psalm  of  gratitude. 
Then  shall  all  shackles  fall;  the  stormy  clangor 

Of  wild  war  music  o'er  the  earth  shall  cease; 
Love  shall  tread  out  the  baleful  fire  of  anger, 

And  in  its  ashes  plant  the  tree  of  peace. — WHITTIER. 


VII. 
ORDINANCES  NOT  SECTARIAN. 

268.  "It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth  *  *  *  *  the  words  that  I  have 
spoken  unto  you  are  spirit,  and  are  life." l 

269.  "Our  sufficiency  is  from  God;  who  also  made  us  sufficient  as  min- 
isters of  a  new  covenant;  not  of  the  letter,  but  of  the  spirit;  for  the  letter 
killeth,  but  the  spirit  giveth  life." 2 

270.  "Having  been  begotten  again,  not  of  corruptible  seed,  but  of 
incorruptible,  through  the  word  of  God,  which  liveth  and  abideth." 3 

271.  "For  in  one  Spirit  were  we  all  baptized  into  one  body."4 

I.  THE  ROAD  AND  WATER  BAPTISM. 

272.  Statutory  religion  has  had  a  chief  sup- 
port in  the  external  ordinances  of  religion.     Great 
institutions  of  religion  have  been  held  together 
by    the    fear   disseminated    that    salvation    is 
in   danger    by    the    neglect    of    some   outward 
form.     Water  baptism    has  been  a  great  means 
of  ecclesiasticism,     To  no  external   thing  does 
the  Eoad  attach  any  saving  value.     The  thing 
that   counts  in   the   religion  of  Jesus  and  with 
earnest  men  is  character.5    It  cannot  be  explained 
to  one  who  feels  the  meaning  of  existence,  how 
the  great  Creator  of  worlds  has  an  infinite  and 
eternal  wish  as  to  a  way  of  using  water  which 

1  John  6:63.         2  2  Cor.  3:5,  6.          3 1  Peter  1:23.          4 1  Cor.  12:13. 

273.  5  There  were  local  reasons  why  John  the  Baptist  made  so  much  of 
baptism,  while  he  dropped  all  other  religious  forms,  the  same  as  the  other 
Prophets.    Jesus  preached  repentance  the  same  as  John,  but  dropped  the 
baptism.      He  attributed  no  value  to  ceremonies,  and  never  baptized  any 
one  with  water,  Matt.  3:2;  4:17;  Jno.  4:2.      What  a  departure  it  was  from 
Jesus  to  teach  that  one  is  damned  who  is  not  baptized  with  water  in  an 
approved  way,  Lecky's  "History  of  European  Morals,"  Vol.  II,  p.  25, 


100  THE    ROAD 

imperils  salvation.  If  water  baptism  is  any 
account,  its  meaning  is  found  in  the  long  history 
of  God's  providential  supervision  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Jewish  nation  from  ignorance  and 
barbarism  into  a  religious  civilization. 

274.  They  were  given  a  system  of  religion 
which  abounded   with   ceremonial  observances, 
the  object  of  which  was  to  impress   them   with 
the  idea  of  purity  and  holiness.1    The  type  of 
moral  character  was   low  in  Israel,  and  it  was 
lower  still  in  the   adjoining  nations.     It  was  a 
problem  that  God  only  could  work  out,  to  raise 
such  a  people  to-  an  understanding  of  a  spiritual 
and  holy  life.     In  order  to  do  this,  they  were  set 
to  work  at  a  religion  of  washings  and  cleansings. 
They  were  all  the  time  kept  at  making  distinc- 
tions between   things  clean  and    unclean.     All 
kinds  of  ceremonial  pollutions  required  purifica- 
tion by  water.     To  wash  the  clothes  and  to  bathe 
the  flesh  in  water,  is  the  common   requirement 
for    the     defiled,    in    the    book    of    Leviticus.2 
Whether  it  was  wrashing  or  bathing,  or  sprink- 
ling with    water,    the    thought  was  that    of  a 
purification? 

275.  The  clean  persons  sprinkled  water  upon 
the  unclean,  and   the  unclean    was  required  to 
wash  his  clothes  and  bathe  himself  in  order  to 
purification.4    In   these   purifications   appointed 


1  See  Paragraph  129. 

2  Lev.  11:25;  13:6;  14:8,  9;  15:5,  8,  11;  16:26,  28;  et  al.,- 

3  Num.  8:7;  19:13,  18-22;  et  al. 

276.  4  Water,  in  a  religious  service,  is  a  symbol-rite:  No  matter  how 
it  is  used,  it  denotes  a  purely  spiritual  conception.  The  use  of  water  even 
by  John  the  Baptist  was  a  mere  incident  of  his  work.  The  real  purification 


THE    ROAD  101 

for  the  unclean,   the  baptism  of  proselytes  and 
John's  baptism  originated.1 

277.  John's  baptism  implied  that  the  people 
were  unclean,  and  that  they  must  be  puritied  in 
order  to  be  lit  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven.2    The 
people   came  to  it  at  once,  because  they  were 
perfectly  familiar  with  its  use  and  its  meaning. 
John  defined  it  by  saying:  "1  indeed  baptize  you 
with  water  unto  repentance"* 

278.  Repentance   signified    a    purification  so 
complete  that  both  the  inward  conviction  and 
the    outward    conduct  of  life    would  be   made 


which  he  did,  was  by  bringing  men  to  a  "baptism  into  repentance,"  or  "into 
the  remission  of  sins,"  Mark  1:4;  Luke  3:3. 

The  baptism  of  John  can  be  understood  only  as  it  is  associated  with 
repentance.  It  was  repentance  that  opened  the  way  to  purified  lives  of 
righteousness.  Of  ceremonies,  sacrifices,  institutions,  and  works  of  the 
Law,  he  seemed  to  care  nothing  and  said  nothing.  He  followed  the  Proph- 
ets in  this;  and  opened  the  way  for  the  advanced  work  without  sacramen- 
tarianism  by  Jesus  and  the  Apostles.  Luke  3:2-18. 

279.  l  See  Smith's  "Dictionary  of  the  Bible,"  Vol.  I,  page  233.      As  a 
religious  sendee,  ablution  or  bathing  was  common  in  all  ancient  nations. 
The  SPIRITUAL  PURIFICATION  for  which  the  ceremonial  washings  stood,  was 
well  known  in  Israel,  Psalm  26:6;  51:2,  7;  73:13;  Isai.  4:4;  Jer.  4:14. 

280.  2  In  both  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  water  often  has  the  spir- 
itual meaning  of  an  inward  purification:      "In  that  day  there  shall  be  a 
fountain  opened  to  the  house  of  David  and  to  the  inhabitants'  of  Jerusalem, 
for  sin   and    for  uncleanness;"    "after  a  true    likeness  doth  now  save 
you,  even  baptism,  not  the  putting  away  of  the  fiith  of  the  flesh,  but  the 
interrogation  of  a  good  conscience  toward  God,"   Zech.  13:1;    1  Pet.  3:21. 

281.  3  Give  to  it  its  spiritual  meaning  and  substitute  the  word  PURIFI- 
CATION for  tke  word  baptism,  and  see  what  a  rich  meaning  there  is  in 
many  passages,  that  are  now  poorly  understood.      Remember  that  the 

PURIFICATION  IS  BY  MEANS  OF  REPENTANCE  AND  HOLINESS,  and  then  consider 

how  rich  and  great  is  the  great  commission: 

"Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  whole  creation. 
He  that  believeth  and  is  PURIFIED  shall  be  saved,"  Mark  16:15,  16. 

They  were  commissioned  to  go  and  bring  men  under  the  influence  of 
penitence  and  pardon.  Not  water,  but  spiritual  purification  was  mean* 


102  THE    ROAD 

clean.1  The  observance  of  the  letter  of  the  law, 
with  its  legal  purifications,  could  not  purify  the 
people.2  Their  fathers  had  walked  over  the  dried 
bed  of  Jordan  into  the  promised  land,  and  now 
with  the  baptism  of  repentance,  they  must  be 
purified  in  its  current  and  come  up  out  of  it  pre- 
pared for  the  promised  kingdom  of  the  Messiah.3 
The  legal  purifications  as  related  to  the  baptism 
of  John,  show  that  water  baptism  stood  for  puri- 
fication by  repentance  and  holiness. 

285.  The  words  baptize  and  purify  are  used 
interchangeably,  showing  that  they  mean  exactly 
the  same  thing: 

"There  arose  therefore  a  question  on  the  part 
of  John's  disciples  about  purifying  and  they 
came  unto  John  and  said  to  him,  Rabbi,  he 
that  was  with  thee  beyond  Jordan,  to  whom  thou 


282.  l  In  the  Bible  meaning  of  baptism,  there  is  nothing  more  sec- 
tarian than  there  is  in  repentance  and  holiness.     How  poor  is  the  thought, 
if  the  meaning  we  attach  to  it  is  only  that  of  a  mode  of  using  water. 

283.  2  The  immersionist  quotes  freely  from  ancient  writers,  to  show 
that  the  literal  meaning  of  baptism  is  to  submerge.     The  fiiends  of  other 
modes,  do  the  same  thing.     This  can  be  done,  because  the  ancients  were 
not  careful  to  confine  the  word  to  any  mode  of   using   water.      When 
"divers  washings"  are  spoken  of,  the  word  baptize  is  used  in   the  Greek. 
Heb.  9:10;  Mark   7:4.     If  a  house  is  to  be   cleansed,  water  may  be  used 
in  any  way;  but  it  is  not  the  way  of  using  the  water  that  is  in  mind,  but 
the  purification.     There  may  also  be  purification  without  using  water. 

284.  3  Forty  years  ago,  I  was  baptized  by  immerson  in  a  running 
stream  of  water.     As  I  had  been  taught  to  read  'the  Bible,  I  believed  that 
thus  I  was  exactly  following  the  example  of  Jesus.     I  do  not  now  believe 
that  Jesus  was  baptized  in  that  manner.     But  the  real  point  of  this  chapter 
is  not  primarily  to  establish  another  mode,  but  to  make  it  clear  that  on 
account  of  the  diverse  opinions  as  to  modes  or  the  use  of  water  at  all,  the 
utmost  charity  must  'be  practiced  among  Jesus'  disciples.     In   whatever 
way  water  is  used,  all  are  Brethren,  Matt.  23:8;  1  Tim.  1:5;  1  Cor.  12:13. 


THE     ROAD  103 

hast   borne  witness,   behold  the  same   baptizeth 
and  all  men  come  to  him." 

Their  dispute  was  about  purifying  and  when 
they  came  to  John  to  have  it  settled  they  called 
it  baptizing.  Any  one  can  thus  see  that  the 
Bible  meaning  of  baptism  is  to  purify.2 

2.     THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  AND  HIS  BAPTISM. 

287.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  great  purifier,3  and 
water  is  of  use  only  to  the  extent  that  it  symbol- 
izes his  baptism.     His  baptism  is  the  life  of  all 
true  religion  in  all  sects;  and  wherever  any  one 
is  found  who  has  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  his  work 
of  making  godly  character  can  be  seen.     Of  this 
baptism,  the  church  Father  in  the  extract  above 
says:   " Jesus  baptizes  but  with  the  Spirit;   and 
this  is  perfect." 

288.  It  is  so  distinguished  in  itself,  that  where 
this  baptism  is  referred  to  in  the  New  Testament 
it  is  called,  "one  baptism;"  "dead  unto  sin;"  "into 
Christ  Jesus;"  *  'buried   with  him;"   "rooted  and 

1  John  3:25,  26. 

286.  2  Gregory  Nazianzen,  a  leading  church  father  who  wrote  in  the 
Fourth  Century,  says  of  the  many  baptisms  and  their  one  meaning  of  puri- 
fication (11:353): 

"Come  let  us  inquire  somewhat  concerning  the  differences  of  baptisms, 
that  we  may  go  hence  PURIFIED.  Moses  baptized,  but  with  water  and 
previously  with  the  cloud  and  sea.  And  John  baptized  but  not  Judaically, 
nor  yet  with  water  only,  but  also  into  repentance;  but  not  wholly  spiritu- 
ally, for  he  does  not  add,  'with  the  Spirit/  And  Jesus  baptizes,  but  with 
the  Spirit.  And  this  is  perfect.  I  know  a  fourth  kind  of  baptism,  that 
which  is  by  martyrdom  and  blood,  with  which  Christ  himself  was  baptized. 
And  I  know  yet  a  fifth,  the  baptism  of  tears,  washing  nightly  his  bed  with 
tears.  Perhaps  then  they  will  be  baptized  with  fire,  harder  to  bear  and 
longer  in  duration,  the  final  baptism,"  Dale's  "Judaic  Baptism"  p.  382. 

8  Holy  GHOST  as  a  name  for  the  Holy  Spirit  ought  to  become  obseltte. 
It  is  not  a  fit  term  to  apply  to  the  Spirit  of  God.  He  is  not  a 


104  THE     ROAD 

builded  up  in  him;"  "body  of  sin  done  away;"  "a 
new  creation. "  What  is  meant  always  is,  an 
experience  of  life  which  water  or  some  other 
thing  mav  be  used  to  symbolize.1 

290.  When  the  life-giving  work  of  the  Spirit 
ceases  from  the  world,  there  will  no  longer  exist 
the  Road  of  Jesus.     All  four  of  the  Gospels  agree 
that  the  baptism  by  Jesus,  which  is  his  presence 
among  men  in  all  ages,  is  of  the  Holy  Spirit: 

"I  indeed  baptize  you  with  wrater  unto  repent- 
ance; but  he  that  cometh  after  me  is  mightier 
than  I,  whose  shoes  I  am  not  worthy  to  bear;  He 
shall  baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Spirit  an$  with 
fire.":  "I  baptize  you  with  water;  but  he  shall 
baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Spirit."5  "I  indeed 
baptize  you  writh  water;  *  *  *  He  shall  bap- 
tize you  with  the  Holy  Spirit  and  with  fire." 
"He  that  sent  me  to  baptize  with  water  he  said 
unto  me,  upon  whomsoever  thou  shalt  see  the 
Spirit  descending,  and  abiding  upon  him,  the 
same  is  he  that  baptizeth  with  the  Holy  Spirit.57' 

291.  It  is   marvelous   how  plainly  John  the 
Baptist  thus  indicates  that  the  chief  feature  of 
Christ's  administration  would  be  the  baptism  by 
the  Spirit/'    He  did  not  say  that  Jesus  like  him- 

289.  l  This  spiritual  change  by  God's  Spirit  drawing  us  into  new  loves 
and  new  purposes,  is  spoken  of  in  many  ways  in  the  Scriptures.  It  is  in 
all  cases  a  purification  or  baptism.  Compare  Gal.  2:20;  6:14;  5:22-25; 
Jno.  3:6-8;  Eph.  4:5;  6:14;  Rom.  6:3,  6,  11;  8:2,  6,  9,  14-16;  Col.  2:6,  12, 
13,  14;  3:3,  10;  2  Cor.  5:17.  Consider  each  one  of  the  fruits  of  the 
Spirit,  and  the  character  which  they  all  together  make,  Gal.  5:22,  23. 

2  Matt.  3:11.  3-Mark  1:8.  4  Luke  3:16.  5  John  1:33. 

292.  6  The  disciples  who  happened  to  be  present  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost received  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit  in  a  special  manner;  but  there  were 
many  more  disciples  elsewhere,  and  there  is  no  intimation  that  they  did  not 
also  receive  a  baptism  of  the  Spirit.    The  baptism  of  Cornelius  with  the 


THE     ROAD  105 

self  would  baptize  with  water.  As  people  are 
educated  now,  wherever  the  word  baptize  occurs 
it  is  supposed  to  mean  water;  while  in  no  case 
did  Jesus  ever  mention  water  in  connection  with  ike 
word  baptize  except  where  he  referred  to  John's 
baptism. 

^98.  Before  Jesus  left  the  world,  he  promised 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  would  come,  and  go  on  with 
the  work  which  he  had  begun:  "He  shall  give 
you  another  Comforter  that  he  may  abide  with 
you  forever.7'1 

294.  The  book  of  Acts  has  been  called  "the 
Gospel  of  the  Spirit."  Notwithstanding  its  brev- 
ity, it  contains  more  than  fifty  references  to  the 
Holy  Spirit."  These  references  show  the  f ultiil- 
ment  of  the  promise  of  "Power  from  on  High,"3 
and  there  is  no  promise  which  carries  in  it  such 
a  meaning  of  Life  and  Light  for  all  the  world. 
The  cry  of  Christendom  should  go  up  to  God 
every  hour  of  every  day:  "Take  not  thy  Holy 
Spirit  from  me."4  And  the  business  of  every 
one  who  prays  this  prayer  of  repentance  and 
faith,  is  to  repent  and  believe.  Let  those  who 
desire  the  true  baptism  come  immediately  to 
Christ,  waiting  not  for  clergy,  and  crowd,  and 
watei>,  to  perlorm  a  baptism;  and  let  them  yield 


Holy  Spirit  was  the  reason  that  Peter  gave  for  baptizing  with  water,  Acts 
10:47.  Jesus'  disciples  baptized  witn  water,  but  "Jesus  himself  baptized 
not,"  Jno.  4:2.  His  one  baptism  was  with  the  Holy  Spirit  only;  and  since 
John  said  that  this  WOULD  BE  JESUS'  BAPTISM,  no  one  has  a  right  to  attach 
the  idea  of  WATER  to  the  word  baptism  when  it  is  found  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, unless  there  are  evident  reasons  for  so  doing. 

1  John  14:16,  17;  15:26;  16:7-15;  Luke  12:12;  Mark  13:11. 

2  See  Bickersteth's  "  The  Spirit  of  Life"  p.  25-28. 

3  Luke  24:49.  *  Psalm  51:11. 


106  THE     ROAD 

themselves  in  the  worship  of  silent  surrender  to 
the  Spirit  of  Life,  and  walk  in  the  Spirit.1 

295.  The  Apostles  did  not  receive  water  bap- 
tism from  the  hands  of  their  divine  Master;  and 
if  we  may  take  the  practice  of  Paul  as  an  exam- 
ple of  all  the  other  Apostles,  they  made  much  of 
the  baptism  of  the  Spirit  and  but  little  of  water 
baptism  in  their  work.     We   have  no   account 
that  they  ever  were  baptized  with  water.     Paul 
was  eighteen  months  in  Corinth,  when  he  planted 
the  church  there,  and  in  relation  to  his  work  and 
water  baptism,  he   says:  "I  thank    God   that  I 
baptized  none  of  you,  save  Crispus  and  Grains; 
*     *     *     and  I  baptized  also   the  household  of 
Stephanus;  besides  I  know  not  whether  I  bap- 
tized  any   other.     For  Christ   sent   me   not   to 
baptize,  but  to  preach  the  Gospel.7' 

296.  Ponder  well  the  example  of  the  Apostles, 
and   understand   that   Jesus  did    the    baptizing 
with  the  Holy  Spirit  which  Paul  associates  w^ith 
spiritual  life  and  redemption.     Water  was  used 
to  symbolize  the  baptism  with  the  Spirit,  with 
the  same  freedom  that  the  Jews  had  always  used 
it  to  represent  cleansing;  but  the  real  and  effect- 
ual baptism  was  with  the  Spirit  and  "Into  Christ 
Jesus." 

297.  No  one  did  so  much  as  Paul  as  a  preacher 
under  "the  great  commission/'3  and  yet  he  said 
with  reference  to  water   baptism,  "Christ  sent 


1  Rom.  8:2;  "For  in  one  Spirit  were  we  all  baptized   into  one  body,'* 
1  Cor.  12:13. 
81  Cor.  1:14. 
3  Mark  16:16. 


$*»    &®A£  lUY 


me  not  to  baptize,"*  He  never  thought  that  any- 
body would  understand  him  to  mean  water  bap- 
tism, and  surely  not  a  mode  of  baptism,  when  he 
wrote  of  a  burial  with  Christ  in  baptism.  Where 
he  uses  these  words,  in  Colossians  and  Romans2 
he  labors  to  find  words  and  figures  to  express  the 
change  from  a  carnal  to  a  Spiritual  life.  In  Col- 
ossians he  represents  the  new  life  as  "rooted"  in 
Christ,  ''builded  up  in  Him,"  "established  in  your 
faith,"  "circumcised  with  a  circumcision  not 
made  with  hands,"  "putting  off  of  the  flesh," 
"buried  with  Him  in  baptism,"  "raised  with  Him 
through  faith,"  "quickened  together  with  Him." 

299.  What  is  Paul  teaching  by  the  use  of  such 
a  number  of  figures?     Certainly  it  is  not  how  to 
be    baptized;   but    newness    of    life.     He    puts 
together  words  to  say  that  there  must  be  a  dying 
to  self,  a  burial  of  the  old  and  a  rising  into  a 
new  life.     This  is  a  mighty  passage  of  Scripture, 
and  it  is  a  perversion  of  its  intent  to  single  out 
"buried  with  Him  in  baptism"  to  teach  a  literal 
dipping  of  one  in  water  by  some  one  else.3    If 

298.  l  1  Cor.  1:14-17.  When  Paul  threw  off  the  last  sacramental 
thing  he  had,  circumcision,  1  Cor.  7:19,  he  was  in  no  mood  to  take  up 
water  in  its  place;  and  evidently  he  did  not  understand  "baptizing"  in  the 
great  commission,  Matt.  28:19,  to  refer  to  water.  Existence  to  him  was 
too  serious  a  matter  to  have  time  or  patience  to  maneuver  a  sect  or  a  form. 

2  Rom.  Chap.  6,  and  Col.  Chap.  2. 

300.  3  The  same  great  mistake  is  made,  when  Romans  chapter  6  is 
understood  to  mean  something  else  than  the  cleansing  by  the  Spirit  and 
newness  of  life.     Some  people  have  made  so  much  of  "buried  with  Him 
through  baptism,"  in  verse  4.     Consider  now: 

(a)  If  water  baptism  is  meant,  it  is  absolutely  essential  in  order  to 
salvation;  for  in  order  to  be  saved  we  must  be  "baptized  into  Christ  Jesus.'* 

(b)  Water  baptism  is  not  meant,  for  the  subject  about  which  the 
apostle  is  writing  is  the  new  spiritual  life  which  comes  by  being  ''dead  to 
sin."     What  Jesus  does  in  his  work  of  redemption,  and  not  rites  mr  wdi- 


108  fEI    BOAB 

that  is  the  Apostle's  meaning,  then  no  one  can 
be  saved  without  water  baptism;  but  if  it  is  not 
his  meaning,  then  the  water  is  not  an  ingredient 
of  the  salvation  taught.1 

302.  It  is  the  same  "one  baptism"  that  Jesus 
sought  to  have  Nicodemus  think  about,  when  he 
alluded  to  the  water  purifications.  Knowing 
how  much  the  Jews  then  made  of  baptism,  he 
sought  by  means  of  that  to  raise  his  thought  to 


nances,  is  the  subject  in  chap.  5;  and  the  new  life  we  have  in  him,  is  the 
subject  of  chap.  6. 

(c)  Water  baptism  does  not  produce  "newness  of  life," — the  result 
claimed  for-  the  baptism  in  verse  4: 

"We  are  buried  therefore  with  him  through  baptism  *  *  *  so  we 
also  might  walk  in  NEWNESS  OF  LIFE." 

Water  baptism  has  no  esential  relation  whatever  to  such  a  change  in  a 
man's  moral  condition. 

(d)  If  the  passage  is  so  literal  that  a  burial  in  water  is  taught  by  it, 
then  how  about  the  thought  when  the  apostle  changes  the  figure,  verse  6? 

"Knowing  this,  that  our  old  man  was  CRUCIFIED  *  *  *  so  we  should 
no  longer  be  in  bondage  .to  sin." 

Is  not  a  literal  crucifixion  taught  as  much  as  a  literal  burial? 

(e)  The  ancient  Hebrews  usually  buried  by  putting  the  body  away 
laterally  or  sidewise  into  a  tomb.     They  laid  it  usually  upon  a  shelf  in  a 
burial  chamber.     It  is  probable  that  Paul  had  no  thought  of  our  modern 
way  of  burial,  and  what  he  said  did  not  refer  to  a  submersion  in  water. 

(f)  When  we  consider  that  Paul  by  all  his  figures  of  language  was 
trying  to  teach  newness  of  life,  how  forcible  is  his  saying  if  we  translate 
the  word  "baptism"  by  the  Scriptural  term  PURIFICATION,  which  expresses 
its  meaning:    "BURIED  WITH  HIM  BY  PURIFICATION;"  that  is,  to  possess 
holiness  in  him,  laying  away  our  sins  as  he  laid  away  his  mortality. 

(g)  The  baptism  here  taught  is  not  into  water,  but  it  is  "INTO  CHRIST 
JESUS." 

301.  l  What  life  there  is  in  all  these  figures  if  they  are  spiritually 
apprehended:  "dead  to  sin,"  "purified  into  Christ  Jesus,"  "buried  through 
purification,"  "walk  in  newness  of  life,"  "united  with  him,"  "crucified  with 
him,"  "body  of  sin  done  away,"  "no  longer  in  bondage  to  sin."  "justified 
from  sin,"  "dead  with  Christ,"  "live  with  him,"  "alive  unto  God." 

The  "letter  killeth"  truth  thus  expressed,  but  the  words  are  life  if  they 
are  spiritually  received.  There  is  the  "one  baptism,"  which  is  by  the  "one 
Spirit,"  and  which  makes  of  the  church  "one  body,"  Eph.  4:4,  5. 


*R1    BOAS 

the  spiritual  By  the  one  word,  ''water,"  the 
attention  of  Nicodemus  was  arrested,  and  the 
truth  by  the  birth  of  the  Spirit  was  given  in  all 
the  other  words.1 

303.  Luke  does  not  omit  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel  from  his  rendering  of  the  great  commis- 
sion; but  instead  of  "baptize"  as  in  Matthew  and 
Mark,  he  says:  "Tarry  ye  in  Jerusalem  until  ye 
be  endued  with  power  from  on  high?™    More  than 
eight  years  after  the  day  of  Pentecost,  the  bap- 
tism with   the  Spirit  is  spoken  of  by  Peter  the 
same  as  at  first,  but  without  the  "tongues  part- 
ing asunder,  like  as  of  fire:" 

"Then  remembered  I  the  word  of  the  LORD 
how  he  said,  John  indeed  baptized  with  water; 
but  ye  shall  be  baptized  with  the  Holy  Spirit/71 

304.  Many  years  afterwards,  Paul  said  of  all 
Christians: 

"For  in  one  spirit  were  we  all  baptized  into 
one  body;"  "According  to  his  mercy-  he  saved 
us,  through  the  washing  of  regeneration,  and 
renewing  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  he  poured  out 
upon  us  richly,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Savior."4 

It  is  a  religious  calamity,  when  any  one  puts 
water  in  the  place  of  this  "one  baptism ;"  and  this 
baptism  with  the  Spirit  can  no  more  be  shut  in 


JIt  was  the  second  reference  to  being  born  again,  Jno.  3:3,  5,  in  which 
Jesus  alluded  to  water.  Nicodemus  understood  that  term  as  the  symbol  of 
a  new  birth  by  purification.  Proselytes  were  thus  EXTERNALLY  "born 
again."  By  what  Nicodemus  already  knew  of  a  birth  by  water  and  of  the 
blowing  of  the  wind,  Jesus  endeavored  to  explain  to  him  the  being  "born 
from  above."  The  explanation  by  means  of  water  purification  and  the 
wind,  of  regeneration  by  the  Holy  Spirit  INTERNALLY,  begins  with  this 
second  reference  to  being  born  again,  in  verse  5. 

2  Luke  24:47-49.         3  Acts  2:3;  11:16.        4 1  Cor.  12:13;  Titus  3:5,  6. 


9x8 

as  a  sectarian  possession  by  any  one  church,  than 
the  sun  which  shines  for  all, 

3-     THE  MODE  OF  BAPTISM  WITH  WATER. 

305.  In  the  purifications  of  the  Jews,  water 
was    very    commonly    used  by  sprinkling.     In 
accord  with   that  practice,  the  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  was  typified  in  prophecy  as  a  sprink- 
ling with  water: 

"Then  will  I  sprinkle  clean  water  upon  you, 
and  ye  shall  be  clean;  from  all  your  filthiness 
and  from  all  your  idols  will  I  cleanse  you." ! 

306.  Paul  speaks  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  "poured 
out  upon  us.77      This  describes  baptism  with  the 
same  word  that  was  used  more  than  thirty  years 
before  for  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit  on  the  Day 
of  Pentecost.3    This  Greek  word  is  used  eighteen 
times  in  the  New  Testament,  and  always  means 
to  pour  out* 

307.  In  no  case  is  the  mode  indicated,  where 
water  baptism  is  mentioned  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment;  but  the   mode  of  the  baptism  with  the 
Spirit  is  stated  to  be  that  of  pouring.     John  said: 
"I  baptized  you  with  water;  but  he  shall  baptize 
you  with  the  Holy  Spirit."5    In  each  case  it  was 
a  baptism;  and  since  we  know  the  mode  with  the 
Spirit,  we  may  understand  that  the  mode  with 
water  was  the  same.     When  this  is  considered, 
the  following  two  passages  prove  that  Jesus  was 
baptized  by  pouring:  "I  will  pour  forth  of  my 


1  Ezek.  36:25.  2  Titus  3:6,  R.  V.          3  Acts  2:17. 

4  Rev.  16:1,  2,  3,  4,  6,  8,  12,  17,  et  al. 

5  Mark  1:8. 


THE     ROAD  111 

spirit  upon  all  flesh."1  "Because  that  on  the 
Gentiles  also  was  poured  out  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Spirit/' :  Such  a  plain  statement  of  truth,  any 
one  ought  to  be  able  to  see.  The  Holy  Spirit  was 
poured  out,  and  so  was  the  water. 

308.  When  it  is  known  that  pouring  was  the 
mode  of  John's  baptism,  many  things  at  once 
appear  reasonable.  It  is  made  plain  how  at  least 
a  hundred  thousand  people  without  change  of 
raiment,  both  men  and  women,  could  come  and 
be  baptized  and  pass  away  without  dripping 
clothes.3  John  could  stand  upon  a  rock  and  pour 
water  upon  their  heads  as  they  passed  by  him, 
in  the  edge  of  the  river;  and  he  could  not  endure 
it  to  stand  in  water  for  days,  deep  enough  to 
immerse.  The  people  also  would  thus  go  down 
into  the  water  and  come  up  out  of  the  water; 
but  they  would  not  be  plunged  under  the  water. 

310.  All  of  the  scripture  accounts  of  baptism 
are  thus  clearly  explained.  It  was  easy  for  one 
dressed  with  loose  garments,  and  bare  footed  or 
with  sandals,  to  step  down  into  the  edge  of  the 
water  and  be  baptized;  and  because  he  went 


1  Acts  2:17.  2  Acts  10:45.  3  Matt.  3:5. 

309.  4  Acts  8:38;  Abbott  calls  this  kind  of  pouring,  immersion  with- 
out submersion.  He  says:  "  Baptism  was  generally  by  immersion,  but  it  is 
by  no  means  clear  that  it  was  ever  by  submersion.  The  earliest  picture  we 
have  of  baptism  is  one  upon  the  walls  of  the  Catacombs,  in  which  John  the 
Baptist  and  Jesus  are  represented  as  standing  up  to  their  waists  in  the 
river  Jordan,  while  John  pours  water  on  the  head  of  Jesus.  It  is  not  at  all 
improbable  that  the  earlist  form  of  baptism  was  one  which  has  now  utterly 
gone  out  of  use  in  our  churches — a  method  of  immersion  coupled  with  pour- 
ing *  *  *  Any  one  couid  administer .  baptism.  Paul  himself  was 
baptized  by  a  layman.  Any  one  could  preach,  and  every  disciple  did  * 
They  required  no  ordination  for  preaching  or  for  the  administration  of  what 
we  now  call  sacraments."  Abbott's  "Life  and  Letters  of  Paul,"  p.  66. 


112  THE    ROAD 

down  into  the  water  and  came  up  out  of  the 
water,  is  not  the  slightest  proof  that  he  was  sub- 
merged. When  Philip  and  the  eunuch  got  off 
the  wagon  and  went  down  into  the  wrater  for 
baptism,  it  was  a  convenient  thing  to  do;  and  it 
is  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  mode 
required  them  to  continue  their  journey  with 
dripping  clothes.  He  was  baptized  by  pouring, 
standing  in  the  shallow  edge  of  the  water,  the 
same  as  Jesus1. 

311.  Ancient  art  proves  pouring  to  have  been  the  mode  of  Jesus' 
baptism.  The  very  ancient  painting  on  the  door  of  the  great  church  at 
Pisa;  and  on  the  door  of  the  church  on  the  Via  Ostiensis,  at  Rome;  and  on 
the  door  of  the  church  at  Beneventum,  Italy;  and  on  the  dome  of  the  bap- 
tistry at  Ravenna,  all  represent  the  baptism  of  Jesus,  by  John  pouring  water 
on  his  head.  In  agreement  with  all  this,  James  R.  Mershon,  of  Newton, 
Iowa,  who  spent  many  years  in  the  ministry  and  in  business,  and  then 
made  an  extended  visit  to  Italy,  wrote  in  a  letter  to  me  dated  April  26, 
1893: 

"  The  very  costly  baptismal  font  built  by  Constantine,  about  250  years 
after  Paul's  time,  is  yet  in  use.  It  is  a  marble  structure  containing  a  bowl 
for  holding  water,  and  in  front  of  it  is  a  marble  basin  in  the  form  of  a 
kitchen  sink.  The  candidate  leans  forward  over  the  sink,  while  the  water 
is  poured  on  his  head.  Infants  held  by  an  adult,  are  baptized  in  the  same 
way.  The  two  churches  of  Pudens  and  Clement,  built  in  Paul's  time,  are 
carefully  preserved.  Their  arrangements  for  baptisms,  show  that  the 
ordinance  was  administered  in  the  same  way." 

It  has  been  said  that  the  Greek  Church  practices  only  immersion;  but 
under  date  of  Jan.  4,  1886,  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  B.  Jessup,  of  Beirut,  Syria, 
wrote  to  Dr.  Philip  Schaif,  of  New  York: 

"  It  is  well  known  that  the  Orthodox  Greek  Church  insists  upon  trine- 
immersion  as  essential  to  salvation,  whether  in  case  of  infants  or  adults. 
Yet  sometimes,  in  cases  of  necessity,  they  baptize  by  pouring  the  water 
three  times  upon  the  head  *  *  *  Immersion  in  WHOLE  or  in  PART, 
supplemented  by  pouring  if  necessary,  is  the  Oriental  mode  of  baptism." 

The  last  sentence  has  the  additional  authority  of  the  eminent  Dr.  Van 
Dyck.  He  gives  a  case  of  "necessity"  in  his  letter:  A  child  of  eight 
months  was  found  to  be  too  large  for  the  stone  baptismal  font,  so  the  Greek 
priest  held  it  on  his  left  arm  and  poured  the  water  on  its  head.  The  letter 
states  that  "they  allow  pouring  when  immersion  is  not  convenient;"  and  it 
also  states  that  the  Jacobites,  the  ancient  sect  of  Syria,  baptized  by 
pouring. 


THE     ROAD  118 

312.  God,  in  his  providence,  has  thrown  yet 
another  light  upon  this   subject,  which  is  worth 
more  than   lexicons.     A  few  years   ago,   Bishop 
Bryennios,  of  Nicomedia,  in  Asia  Minor,  discov- 
ered in   Constantinople,   "The   Teaching  of  the 
Twelve  Apostles."     It  is  a  catechetical  treatise 
of  the  early  church,  probably  as  early  as  120  and 
not  later  than  160  A.  D.     Chapter  VII,  says: 

"And  concerning  baptism,  thus  baptize  ye: 
Having  first  said  all  these  things,  baptize  into 
the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son  and  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  living  water.  But  if  thou 
have  not  living  water,  baptize  in  other  y/ater; 
and  if  thou  canst  not  in  cold,  in  warm.  But  if 
thou  have  not  either,  pour  out  water  thrice  upon 
the  head  into  the  name  of  the  Father  and  Son 
and  Holy  Spirit." 

This  teaches  that  we  should  do  what  is  covenient 
in  the  matter  of  baptism;  and,  positively,  it  never 
could  have  been  written  if  immersion  -was  the  only 
mode  practiced  in  the  Apostolic  church. 

313.  Is  not  the  argument   conclusive?     Does 
the  mode  of  baptism  furnish  any  reason  for  sec- 
tarianism?    Should  not  every  one  read  the  Bible, 
and  have  liberty  to  follow  personal  convictions 
and  be  baptized  by  any  mode?     As  a  religious 
term,  the  word  means  neither  to  immerse  nor 
sprinkle,  nor  pour;1  and  why  should  the  work  of 

314.  l  Dr.  Robinson  translates  the  Greek  word  BAPTIZO,  "to  wash,  to 
lave,  to  cleanse  by  washing."     He  says  that  this  meaning  must  be  given  to 
it  in  the  New  Testament,  because  the  Hebrews  who  spoke  the  Greek  lan- 
guage, "expressed  not  always  simply  immersion,  but  the  more  general  idea 
of  ABLUTION  or  AFFUSION."     He  says  also  that  the  earliest  Latin  versions  of 
the  New  Testament,  dating  "back  apparently  to  the  second  century  and  to 
usage    connected  with  the  Apostolic   Age,    *          *    never    translated 


114  THB    ROAD 

division,  on  account  of  a  mode,  go  on?1  To  the 
makers  of  all  these  sects  it  may  be  said:  "Ye  did 
not  so  learn  Christ;  if  so  be  that  ye  heard  him, 
and  were  taught  in  him,  even  as  truth  is  in 
Christ  Jesus,  *  *  *  that  ye  be  renewed  in  the 
spirit  of  your  mind,  and  put  on  the  new  man, 
which  after  God  hath  been  created  in  righteous- 
ness and  holiness  of  truth."2 

4-     THE  LORD'S  SUPPER. 

316.  The  discussion  of  baptism  it  is  hoped  has 
made  clear  three  things:  (a)  That  water  baptism 
was  of  so  little  importance  to  Jesus,  that  it  is 
impossible  for  any  one  by  the  New  Testament  to 
settle  on  any  one  mode  as  essential;  (b)  If  water 
baptism  has  any  Gospel  authority,  so  as  to  make 
it  an  institution  of  Jesus  Brotherhood,  then  there 
are  two  baptisms,  for  the  New  Testament  cer- 
tainly teaches  that  Jesus'  Baptism  is  not  by 
water  but  with  the  Spirit;  (c)  The  idea  of  some 

BAPTIZO  by  IMMERGO  or  any  like  word;  showing  that  there  was  something  in 
the  rite  of  baptism  to  which  the  latter  did  not  correspond."  See  "Greek 
and  English  Lexicon  of  the  New  Testament." 

This  proves  again,  what  is  shown  in  the  first  part  of  this  chapter,  that 
baptism  does  not  mean  any  one  mode  of  using  water;  but  it  means  a  purifi- 
cation or  cleansing,  which  lies  back  of  any  or  all  modes. 

315.  Everyone  must  have  the  fruits  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  no  one 
can  get  these  fruits  out  of  water,  or  out  of  a  church,  or  from  any  other 
source  except  the  Spirit  himself.  It  was  meant  that  from  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost onward,  there  should  be  a  richer  and  fuller  presence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  world  than  ever  before.  If  at  times  there  have  been  special 
gifts,  there  has  been  and  is  also  a  blessed  fullness  for  all  people.  The 
sacrificial  rites  of  the  old  dispensation  served  but  as  a  shadow  of  the  full- 
ness of  a  Savior  who  came  for  the  whole  world  and  whose  coming  caused 
them  to  disappear.  The  ceremonial,  purifying  rites  opened  up  into  the 
fullness  and  richness  of  a  baptism  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  no  forms  can 
limit  and  no  sectarianism  can  narrow  to  a  favored  few. 

2  Eph.  4:20-24. 


particular  form  of  a  religious  rite,  as  an  obligat* 
ory  institution  of  the  Gospel,  is  foreign  to  its 
genius, 

317.  The  church  after  the  death  of  the  Apos- 
tles was  made  an  institution,  and  then,  and  not 
until  then;  the   ordinances,  two  or  more,  were 
given   an   institutional   value,  to   maintain   the 
institutional  church. 

318.  The  general   facts   relating   to  baptism 
are  equally  applicable   to  the  Lord's  Supper.    It 
was  observed  with   as   much  formality  as  a  social 
meal,1  and  with  no  other  thought  of   distinction, 
save  this  one:  that  they   should   think  of  Jesus 
their  Savior  and  Friend.2    The  symbols  aided  the 
memory  and  meditation,  and  made  occasions  for 
the  exercise  of  faith  and  love.     And  when  this  is 
said,  all  is  said;  for  there  is  to  some  the  highest 
kind  of  worship  without   any   externalities,  and 
they  only  serve  to  divert  the  mind.3 

319.  :  "It  is  no  more  necessary  that  a  particular  ecclesiastical  official 
preside  at  the  church  meal,  than  that  such  a  one  be  brought  to  say  grace 
at  the  home  table.     Nor  need  it  be  thought  that  only  a  deacon  can  distrib- 
ute the  bread  and  wine.     Whoever  can  properly  ask  the  blessing  and  pass 
the  food  at  the  home  table,  can  do  so  in  the  church  meal.     And  let  the 
welcome  to  the  church  supper  be  given  to  all  devout  persons,  baptized  or 
unbaptized."     Fox's  "Christ  in  the  Daily  Meal,"  p.   125.     See  Paragraph 
323. 

320.  2  "When  they  did  thus  break  bread  together,  they  remembered 
that  night  when  Jesus  Christ  sat  with  the  twelve,  and  brake  bread  with 
them,  and  passed  them  the  bread  and  the  wine.     But  as  yet  this  simple 
social  supper  had  not  become  a  sacrament."     Abbott's  "Life  and  Letters  of 
Paul,"  p.  67. 

"There  is  no  indication  in  our  sources  that  in  these  early  d'.iys  the 
Lord's  Supper  was  thought  of  as  a  continuation  of  or  substitute  for  the 
Jewish  Passover,  or  that  any  paschal  significance  whatever  attached  to  it," 
McGiffert's  "Apostolic  Age,"  p.  70. 

321.  8 Emerson   said:     "I  like  the  silent  church  before  the  service 
begins  better  than  any  preaching." 


¥B1   JIOAH 

829,  History  points  to  the  first  observance  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  in  connection  with  a  common 
meal,  each  bringing  his  own  contribution  in  his 
basket;1  and,  while  they  were  eating,  they  set 
apart  a  portion  of  the  bread  and  wine  for  the 
memorial  use.  The  brotherly  love,  and  the  unity 
of  the  Community  Brotherhood,  was  expressed 
by  this  common 'meal;  and  a  part  of  the  service 
was  the  offering  of  gifts  for  the  poor. 

324.  Wherever  there  were  disciples  of  Jesus, 
a  Brotherhood  was  formed,  which,  however 
small,  gave  to  the  heathen  the  family  idea  of 
Jesus'  religion;  and  showed  to  them  how  all 
mankind  could  be  controlled  by  the  spirit  of  fel- 
lowship and  fraternal  affection.  In  this  way 
they  wore  the  badge  of  love  indicated  in  the  New 
Commandment,  and  by  which  they  were  to 
become  known.2  Would  it  not  be  a  blessed 
change  today  for  every  community  in  Christen- 
dom, if  the  brethren  in  each  locality  would  do 
away  with  the  sectarian  churches  which  keep 
them  apart  and  be  known  to  the  world  simply  as 
a  Brotherhood? 

323.  l  "The  Greeks  had  their  voluntary  associations  which  were  some- 
times charitable,  sometimes  religious,  sometimes  social.  They  were  a 
festive  people,  and  these  gatherings  were  generally  accompanied  with  a 
meal.  The  Hebrews  were  also  a  festive  people.  Their  religious  forms  and 
ceremonies  were  accompanied  to  a  remarkable  extent  with  eating.  They 
believed  in  it  as  a  means  of  unloosing  the  tongue  and  uniting  people  in  good 
fellowship,  and  in  this  they  were  wise.  So  these  early  Christians,  meeting 
together  in  private  homes,  and  expecting  the  coming  of  Messiah  straight- 
way to  set  the  world  right,  not  only  sang  hymns,  repeated  together  extracts 
from  the  Hebrew  Psalms,  and  administered  baptism  as  a  token  of  faith  in 
Christ,  but  set  down  to  a  common  table  together."  Abbott's  "Life  and 
Letters  of  Paul,"  p.  66.  Uhlhorn's  "Conflict  of  Christianity  with  Heathen- 
ism," p.  132.  King's  "Cry  of  Christendom,"  p.  193. 

2  Paragraphs  82,  246. 


?HI    BOAB  llf 

|,    POINTS  MANIFESTED  IN  THIS  CHAPTER, 

325.  Ordinances    were  never  thought   of   by 
Jesus  or  the  Apostles,  as  ecclesiastical  institu- 
tions; and  to  give  them  such  a  meaning,  is  the 
same  kind  of  an  apostacy  as  that  of  making  a 
cultus  out  of  his  religion,  and  making  an  insti- 
tution out  of  his  Church. 

326.  Bread  and  wine  were  things  as  common 
as  roads,  and  Christ  made  such  a  common  thing 
as    the    food   of   a  daily  meal    a    reminder   of 
himself. 

327.  Any  number  of  people,  or  a  family  at 
home  meals,  or  one  person  by  himself,  can  have 
a  "Lord's  Supper."    Many  families  have  no  free- 
dom in  speaking  of  Jesus,  and  he  is  excluded 
from  the  circle  of  the  home  life.      How  much 
better  it  would  be  to  have  it  distinctly  under- 
stood that  there  is  a  presence  of  Jesus  when  they 
eat  together,  and  every  family  meal  is  "a  table 
of  the  LORD."      Is  it  the  practice  of  your  family 
to  speak  freely  of  Jesus  at  home?      The  Jewish 
designation   of  a  daily  meal,  "the   breaking  of 
bread/'  ia  the  New  Testament  designation  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.     Communion  is  a  personal  matter 
the  same  as  eating.       "Let  a  man  examine  him- 
self, and  so  let  him  eat,"  1  Cor.  11:28.      It  is  a 
great  wrong  to  divide  the  Brethren  by  ordinan- 
ces.    To  use  them  for  such  an  end  is  a  great 
apostacy.      Their  value  to   any   who  use  them 
depends  upon  the  extent  to  which  they  realize, 
by  their  use,  the  spiritual  presence  of  the  per- 
sonal Jesus. 


VIII. 
JESUS  THE  FRIEND  AND  REFORMER. 

328.  "The  Spirit  of  the  LORD  is  upon  me,  because  he  hath  anointed 
me  to  preach  good  tidings  to  the  poor;  he  hath  sent  me  to  proclaim  release 
to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty 
them  that  are  bruised,  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  LORD."  l 

329.  "Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest."  2 

330.  "Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me." 3 

I.     THE  MOTHERS  AND  HOMES. 

331.  The  work  outlined  in  the  first  text  above 
and  followed  up  as  indicated  in  the  other  two 
texts  and  by  Jesus'  subsequent  labors  for  man- 
kind, made   the  great   Head   of  the  Road,  as  a 
reformer,  a  veritable  successor  of  the  Prophets.4 
His  teaching  dealt  with  their  relations  and  con- 
cerns of  life,  and  his  efforts  were  intensely  prac- 
tical.    John  the  Baptist's  great  popularity  was 
followed  by  great  suffering  on  his  part,  and  by  a 
year  and  a  half  of  waiting  and  imprisonment. 

TLuke  4:18;  Isai.  11:2-10;  43:1-16;  61:1,  2. 

332.  2Matt.  11:28.     Prof.  Harnack  says  that  the  words  in  these  first 
two  texts,  dominated  Jesus'  whole  work  and  message,  and  they  contain  the 
theme  of  all  that  he  thought  and  did,  "What  is  Christianity?"  p.  54.     The 
underlying  principle  of  Jesus'  reform  work  is  the  regeneration  of  each  indi- 
vidual heart,  so  that  men  will  have  similarity  of  feeling  and  purpose  with 
God,  Paragraphs  241,  243.     The  Golden  Rule,  "Ail  things  whatsoever  yo 
would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  even  so  do  ye  also  unto  them,"  Matt. 
7:12,  is  the  statement  of  the  operation  of  Jesus'  perfect  civilization.     Jesus 
made  the  first  complete  revelation  of  a  human  religion  which  absolutely 
took  no  notice  of  race,  or  sex,  or  class.     "  In  the  moral  capabilities  of  a 
man  he  created  a  new  order  of  inalienable  rights,"  Martineau's  "Studies  of 
Christianity,"  p.  313-320. 

3 Matt.  19:14.  *Mieah  6:8;  Matt.  12:7. 


THE     ROAD  119 

333.  Discouraged  as  to  his  own  future,  John 
sent   the   question  to  Jesus,  "Art  thou  he  that 
cometh  ?"     The  answer  does  not  refer  to  opinions 
and  cults  and  institutions,  but  is  concerned  about 
persons  and  life:  "Go  your  way  and  tell  John  the 
things  which  ye  do  hear  and  see;  the  blind  receive 
their  sight,  and  the  lame  walk  and  the  lepers  are 
cleansed,  and   the  deaf  hear,  and  the  dead  are 
raised    up,    and    the    poor    have    good    tidings 
preached  to   them."     The   ground   truth   of  all 
this  is,  Jesus  is  the  practical  friend  of  all  suffer- 
ing and  needy  ones. 

334.  The  chief  concern  to  lift  up  humanity,  is 
the  family;  and  this  is  the   place   where   Jesus 
made  his  greatest  reforms.     From  the  beginning 
it  was  declared  that  in  him  all  the  families  of  the 
earth  should  be  blessed.2    In  the  homes  of  the 
people  of  all  lands,  is  the  place  first  of  all  to  look 
in  order  to  know  if  they  have  the  Life  and  Light 
of  the  world.3 

335.  It  may  be  expected  therefore  that,  fore- 
most of  all  in  his  reform  work  Jesus  would  look 
after  the  women  and  mothers/    Men  have  great 
responsibility,  but  the  chief  dependence   for  a 

1  Matt.  11:3. 

2Gen.  12:3;  28:14;  Acts  3:25.        3Gen.  18:18;  Deut.  6:7;  11:19-21. 

336.  *  Some  of  the  most  touching  facts  in  the  life  of  Christ  relate  to 
women.     His  mission  to  them  has  not  been  understood,  because  the  church 
that  men  see  and  know  has  been  busy  with  other  matters.     If  Christians 
will  lead  the  world  to  see  Jesus  on  this  side  of  His  teaching  and  work,  there 
is  enough  to  bind  the  heart  of  mankind  to  Him  forever. 

In  all  the  past,  except  in  favored  localities  and  at  rare  intervals,  a  slave 
was  no  more  in  bondage.  Might  made  right;  and  history  is  one  long  record 
of  cruelty  to  the  subordinate  by  the  ruling  classes.  Woman  was  classed 
with  the  subordinates,  and  was  relegated  to  the  realm  of  ignorance  and  servi- 
tude. She  was  given  in  marriage,  or  was  bartered  or  sold,  as  a  thing  of 
merchandise. 


120  ,  THE     ROAD 

religious  home  rests  upon  women.  Let  us  weigh 
the  changes  made  by  Jesus  in  their  behalf:  He 
defended  their  rights  in  marriage,  and  con- 
demned the  practice  of  husbands  divorcing  their 
wives  for  any  cause  but  one.1  Man  and  woman 
were  to  meet  on  equal  terms  in  life-long  union; 
each  honoring  the  other,  and  both  training  their 
children  amidst  the  sanctities  of  a  pure  family 
life. 

337.  Through  all  time,  men  had  taken  for 
themselves  the  license  of  lust,  and  applied  the 
law  of  purity  to  women.  Jesus  made  chastity 
equally  binding  on  both.  He  addressed  men 
especially,  and  required  of  them  purity  ever  of 
thought?  In  cases  of  sin,  the  better  circumstan- 
ces and  the  superior  power  of  man  were  recog- 
nized, and  he  was  held  to  be  the  greater  sinner. 
This,  is  the  lesson  taught  where  that  band  of  men, 
with  the  arrogance  which  belongs  to  those  who 
have  the  power  of  law  in  their  own  hands, 
brought  a  woman,  legally  and  physically  helpless, 
to  Jesus.  Her  sin  was  known,  but  the  hollow- 
hearted  men  were  able  to  conceal  theirs.  They 
quickly  and  sneakingly  fled,  when  Jesus  applied 
the  principle  of  justice  to  the  case,  by  saying: 
"He  that  is  without  sin  among  you,  let  him  first 
cast  a  stone  at  her."  All  this  was  new  to  the 
world.  Never  before  had  men  been  addressed 
with  such  burning  words,  and  by  such  authority. 
Bad  men  quickly  learned  to  hate  the  Reformer, 
because  He  hated  their  evil  deeds. 


1  Matt.  19:9.  2  Matt.  5:28;  Paragraph  362. 


THE     ROAD  121 

338.  Women  rejoiced  that  they  had  found  one 
who  gave  them  justice,  apologized  for  them  in 
their  hard  circumstances,  and  respected   their 
worth.     One  after  another  came  to  him  with  her 
sufferings,  and  no  one  went  away  heavy-hearted 
or  unblest. 

339.  The   poor  woman  who   had  gone  on  in 
sin  until  she  was  known  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  city  as  "the  sinner."  heard  of  the  just  man, 
and  found  him  at  a  Pharisee's  table.     Unwel- 
comed  by  the  host,  she  drew  near,  and  fell  upon 
her  knees  at  Jesus'   feet.     With  her  hair  she 
wiped     away    the    tears     from    his    feet,    and 
anointed    them     from    her    alabaster    box    of 
ointment. 

340.  Before  this  time,  Mary  of  Magdala  had 
found  a  friend  in  the   great  Teacher.     As  Jesus 
went  through  the  cities  and  villages  preaching, 
this  woman,   and   Joanna,   the   wife   of  Chuza, 
Herod's  steward,  and  Susanna,  and  "many  others" 
ministered     unto     Him     of     their    substance. 
Nowhere  is  it  said  that  Jesus  had  a  salary  or  any 
financial  support  except  what  came  from  women. 
History  has  no  record  of  any  philosopher  or  rabbi 
who  had  such  a  following  of  women  as  Jesus  had. 
It  is   a  fitting  tribute    to    the  devotion  of  the 
w7omen,  that  the  names   of  some  of  those  who 
followed  the   Saviour  are  handed   down  to  us; 
while  the  names  of  the  men  are  lost,  with  the 
exception  of  the  twelve  Apostles. 

341.  In  passing  through  Samaria  at  one  time, 
Jesus,  at  Jacob's  well,  met  a  humble  woman  of 
poor  antecedants,  but  in  whom  he  recognized  her 
better  self.    It  was  forbidden  to  a  rabbi  to  speak 


122  THE     ROAD 

to  a  woman  in  public,  or  to  take  any  notice  of 
her,  and  his  disciples  marveled  that  he  talked 
with  this  one.  Through  her,  Christ  gave  to 
mankind  their  charter  of  spiritual  liberty.  He 
abolished  the  exclusiveness  of  former  creeds. 
He  placed  the  life  of  worship  in  the  espousal  of 
our  nature  to  truth,  and  made  the  temple  of  it 
in  the  spirit  and  heart.  Our  astonishment  is 
still  greater  when  we  consider  that  to  this  woman 
Jesus  made  the  first  disclosure  of  himself  as  the 
Messiah:  "I  that  speak  unto  thee  am  He."  Such 
an  incident  makes  plain,  as  no  mere  words  can, 
th6  respect  that  Jesus  had  for  woman. 

342.  Even  the  wife   of  Pilate,  who    by  her 
wealth  and   position,   knew  not  the   hardships 
which  come  to   the   poor,    appreciated    Christ's 
wrork  for  her  sex.     It  was  left  for  this  heathen 
woman  to  be  the  only  human  being  who  had  the 
courage  to  plead  the  cause  of  our  Lord  at  that 
dreadful  time  when  the  disciples  forsook  Him, 
and  the  fanatical  multitude  cried  out  for  His 
crucifixion.    She  was  distressed  that  such  a  right- 
eous  friend  of  humanity  should  be  so  cruelly 
treated.     Her  convictions  were  strengthened  by 
a  dream,  and  she  sent  word  to   her  husband: 
"Have  thou  nothing  to  do  with  that  just  man/' 

343.  It  was  the  grandest  tribute  ever  paid  to 
a  public  teacher,  and  a  testimony  that  His  life 
work  had  been  for  them,  that,  when  the  rulers  of 
the  Jews,  attended  by  the  Roman  soldiers  and  the 
cruel  mob,  were  hurrying  Jesus  to  the  place  of 
crucifixion,   "a  great   company   of   women    fol- 
lowed, and  with  tears  bewailed  and   lamented 
Him," 


THE    ROAD  128 

344.  Jesus  took  away  from  women  that  posi- 
tion of  inferiority  which  was  the  bane  to  moral- 
ity   in    oriental    civilizations,    and    his    entire 
reformatory  work  contributed  to  better  the  con- 
ditions of  the  homes  of  the  world.       It  has  been 
an  untold  blessing  to  the  world  that  women  of 
all  classes  and  races,  and  those  with  the  best 
gifts   and   the   highest  development,   have   felt 
ennobled  by  Jesus'  treatment  of  the  sex. 

2.     THE  CHILDREN  AND  THE  CHURCH. 

345.  No    less   admirable    than    that    toward 
women,  was  Jesus'  treatment  of  little  children  and 
young  people.      In   every   instance   he   showed 
desire  for  their  good,  and  appreciation  of  their 
worth.     The  mothers  and  the  children  constitute 
the  families  for  whose  support  so  many   noble 
husbands  and  fathers  go  to  their  work  day  by 
day.     It  must  grieve  the  heart  of  Jesus  that  so 
many  of  these  dear  children  in  the  families  of 
the  world,  are  being  brought  up  as  prodigals  from 
his  church.     Jesus  loves  the   little   children   as 
they   are   loved   by   their  affectionate  and  self- 
denying  parents. 

846.  God  never  instituted  homes  in  order  to 
populate  this  world  with  lives  given  to  the  works 
of  the  devil,  nor  did  he  ever  provide  that  con- 
quest as  a  means  of  the  growth  of  his  kingdom 
should  have  the  prominent  place  which  it  holds 
in  modern  churches.  A  nation  that  depended 
on  conquest  for  its  existence  as  much  as  do  most 
of  the  churches,  would  soon  perish  from  the  earth. 
Internal  growth  is  the  right  way  to  build  up  king- 
doms. Even  Napoleon  said  that  France  needed 


124  THE    ROAD 

nothing  so  much  to  promote  its  regeneration  as 
good  mothers.1 

348.  By  the  redemption  of  humanity  by  Christ 
the  children  belong  to  his  church,  since  they  neither 
have  loved  nor  hated  differently  from  God,  and 
have  not  gone  away  from  him  as  prodigals.2    It 
is  an  apostacy  from  Jesus  not  to  own  the  children. 

350.  Many  of  the  old  creeds  teach  that  the  in- 
fant children  of  believers  belong  to  Christ.3    The 

347.  1  At  a  children's  meeting  where  some  of  the  best  families  in  the 
community  were  represented,  I  inquired  of  each  child  as  to  his  relation  to 
the  church.  Not  one  of  them  had  been  taught  that  there  is  any  relation 
until  old  enough  to  "join."  The  responsibility  rests  on  parents  to  bring 
up  their  children  in  the  church,  and  to  give  them  the  truth  and  training 
through  which  God's  spirit  may  effect  their  regeneration.  IT  is  THE  SIN  OF 

PARENTS  AND  THE  CHURC  2,  THAT  THEY  HAVE  SO  LITTLE  CONFIDENCE  IN  GOD'S 
TRUTH  AND  GRACE  TO  REGENERATE  THE  LITTLE  CHILDREN  COMMITTED  TO 
THEIR  CARE. 

349.  2  If  every  church  would  enroll  the  names  of  these  little  ones  as 
birth-right  members,  and  the  parents  would  unite  in  such  a  recognition  of  their 
children  in  the  church,  it  would  put  itself  into  such  a  relation  of  influence 
and  would  give  to  the  children  such  a  responsibility  for  the  welfare  of  the 
church,  that  both  the  church  and  the  children  would  be  greatly  blessed. 

351.  3  The  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  has  no  form  whatever  for 
receiving  children  into  the  church,   "They  are  to  be  taught  to  pray,  to  abhor 
sin,  to  fear  God,  and  to  obey  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;    and  when  they  come 
to  years  of  discretion,  if  they  be  free  from  scandal,  appear  sober  and  steady 
and  to  have  sufficient  knowledge  to  discern  the  Lord's  body,  they  ought  to 
be  informed  it  is  their  duty  and  their  privilege  to  come  to  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per."   Directory  of  Worship,  Chap.  IX.    This  confession,  Chap.  XXV.,  says: 
"The  visible  church,  which  is  also  catholic  or  universal  under  the  Gospel, 
not  confined  to  one  nation  as  before,  under  the  law,  consists  of  all  those 
throughout  the  world  that  profess  the  true  religion,  together  with  their 
children,  and  is  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  house  and  family 
of  God."     The  first  book  published  in  Connecticut  was  the  Saybrook  Plat- 
form, adopted  A.  D.  1708.     It  says:     "The  whole  body  of  men  throughout 
the  world  professing  the  faith  of  the  Gospel  and  obedience  unto  God  by 
Christ  according  unto  it,     *    *     *     they,  and  their  children  with  them, 
are  and  may  be  called  the  visible  catholic  church  of  Christ,"   Chap.  XXVI. 
In  the  "Heads  of  Agreement,"  adopted  at  the  same  time,  it  is  said:     "We 
do  conceive  the  whole  multitude  of  visible  believers  and  their  infant  seed, 
commonly  called  the  catholic  visible  church,  to  belong  to  Christ's  spiritual 


THE     ROAD  125 

fathers  who  made  these  creeds  did  not  fully  grasp 
the  Gospel  idea  of  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the 
universality  of  His  impartial  love.  The  kind 
Father  who  gives  life  to  all,  does  not  discriminate 
against  any  poor  little  infant,  who  has  no  respon- 
sibility for  the  belief  or  unbelief  of  its  parents, 
or  for  the  place  where  it  is  born.  Special  privi- 
leges and  blessings  are  promised  to  the  families 
of  believers  which  they  have  as  a  matter  of  fact. 
Christ  is  for  all  nations;  God  "preached  the  Gos- 
pel beforehand  unto  Abraham,  saying,  In  thee 
shall  all  nations  be  blessed." 

353.  It  is  true  of  all  the  little  children  in  the 
world,  that,  "dying  in  infancy,  they  are  regener- 
ated and   saved   by   Christ  through  the  Spirit; 
who   worketh   when  and   where   and    how    He 
pleaseth."2 

354.  Our  local  churches  but  poorly  represent 
the  universal  Road  of  God.     They  will  represent 
it  better  when  they  recognize  all  the  children 
who  have  not  reached  the  age  of  accountability 
and  become  prodigals  as  belonging  to  Jesus. 

355.  God's  plan  of  redemption  as  related   to 
the  family,  shows  the  relation  of  children  to  the 


kingdom  in  this  world,"  Chap.  I.  The  Cambridge  Platform,  adopted  A.  D. 
1648,  says:  "The  matter  of  a  visible  church  are  saints  by  calling.  By 
saints  we  understand:  1.  Such  as  have  attained  the  knowledge  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  religion,  etc:  2.  The  children  of  such  who  are  also  holy,"  Chap. 
III. 

352.  l  Gal.  3:8.  In  the  old  dispensation  no  little  child  was  cut  oft7  from 
the  church  because  his  parents  happened  to  be  worshipers  of  Baal  or  no 
worshipers  at  all.  When  Joash  came  to  the  throne  of  Judah,  at  the  age  of 
seven  years,  he  was  not  considered  outside  the  church  because  his  parents 
were  idolaters.  He  did  not  have  to  "join"  when  he  began  his  good  work. 
He  simply  recognized  a  relation  that  already  existed  and  entered  upon  the 
duties  of  that  relation.  2  Presbyterian  Confession  of  Faith,  Chap.  X, 


126  THIS    ROAD 

church.  Peter  was  not  allowed  to  forget  the  full- 
ness of  its  meaning  when  speaking  to  the  great 
adult  congregation  at  Pentecost,  and  said:  "The 
promise  is  unto  you  and  to  your  children."  He 
remembered  the  commission  which  the  Saviour 
gave  to  him,  "Feed  my  lambs." 

356.  The  children  were  so  young  that  Jesus 
took  them  into  his  arms  when  he  identified  him- 
self with  them  in  the  most  remarkable  words  that 
were  ever  uttered  in  relation  to  children,  "Who- 
soever shall  receive  one  such  little  child  in  my  name, 
receiveth  me" 

357.  Some  parents  want  to  have  their  children 
baptized  with  water,  and  some  want  to  consecrate 
them  in  the  presence  of  the  church,  or  privately, 
without  baptism.     In  any  case,  it  is  a  loving  rec- 
ognition by  the  parents  that  their  children  have 
been  redeemed  by  and  belong  to  Christ. 

358.  God  has  said,  "All  souls  are  mine;  as  the 
soul  of  the  father,  so  also  the  soul  of  the  son  is 
mine.771     All  the  possibilities  of  the  church  and 
of  the  world  are  lying  in  the  cradles,  and  are  al- 
ways lying  there.2    Not  by  conquest  but  by  in- 
ternal growth,  will  the  universal  dominion  of  our 
LORD  come. 

361.     There  is  no  time  in  life  when  a  soul  more 
needs  the  help  of  personal  religion  than  that  age 


359.  J  God  always  made  great  account  of  THE  FAMILY.    He  began  at 
creation  with  a  family.    Every  stage  of  His  covenanted  relations  with  His 
people  in  the  old  dispensation  had  to  do  with  the  family.     Ezek.  18:4. 

360.  2  Every  family  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament  impresses  the 
truth  that  the  Road  is  a  family  religion.   Christ's  presence  is  in  every  home 
and  His  seal  is  upon  every  child.     At  each  spring-time  there  is  a  new  crea- 
tion; so  is  there  in  the  birth  of  each  generation.     God  creates  the  world 
anew,  and  gives  the  families  of  earth  a  new  start.     Matt.  18:5, 


THE     ROAD  127 

when  he  is  physically  restless  and  in  some  degree 
unmanageable.  In  this  regard  a  boy  is  like  any 
other  growing  animal.  If  he  has  grown  up  with 
the  feeling  that  he  is  outside  the  kingdom  he  will 
interpret  his  uneasiness  as  moral  depravity  and 
guilt.1 

363.  He  needs  sympathy  and  encouragement, 
but  instead,  he  is  preached  to  as  a  rebel.   He  feels 
mean,  and  concludes  that  he  is  mean.2    He  be- 
comes discouraged,  and  seeks  relief  by  actually 
becoming  a  prodigal. 

365.  A  child  neither  "joins'7  his  family  nor  the 
country;  and  this  term  should  never  be  applied 
to  one  who  at  the  age  of  responsibility  declares 
his  love  to  God,3  and  trust  in  the  Saviour,  and 

362.  1  The  animal  passion  which  led  David  and  Paul  to  speak  of  cor- 
ruption and  depravity  from  birth,  and  of  buffeting  the  body,  Psalms  51:  5, 
I  Cor.  9: 27,  is  the  ruin  of  many.  Recognizing  that  this  appetite  is  greater 
than  the  well-being  of  the  race  requires,  some  of  the  church  fathers  held 
that  it  was  the  "original  sin"  of  human  nature.  The  sexual  passion  has 
probably  contributed  to  bring  more  degradation,  disease,  sorrow,  and  ruin 
into  human  lives  than  any  single  cause.  It  goes  along  with  other  forms  of 
sin  and  dissipation,  wrecking  the  happiness  of  marriage  and  dooming  to 
wretchedness  its  victims  unmasked  by  that  relation.  It  is  named  first  of 
all  in  the  catalogue  of  the  works  of  the  flesh,  Gal.  5:19. 

364.  2  More  than  any  other  passion  it  depends  on  the  imagination,  and 
Jesus  gave  the  effective  remedy  against  it  by  forbidding  THE  THOUGHT, 
Matt.   5;28.     One  is  helped  by  abstinence  from  stimulants,  by  hygienic, 
temperate  living,  by  avoiding  the  nervous  strain  of  excitement;   but,  with 
all  this,  no  one  is  safe  who  will  not  hold  himself  to  high  objects  in  living 
and  to  clean  thoughts,  and  who  will  not  struggle  on  with  manly  courage 
till  he  gets  the  victory.     Rom.  7;18,  20,  24;  8:12,  13;  Lecky's  "History  of 
European  Morals,"  Vol.  II,  pp.  297-303;  Brace's  "St.  Paul's  Conception  of 
Christianity,"  p.  140,  262-267;  Paragraphs  180,  182. 

366.  3  When  Jesus  said,  "Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  Me," 
He  did  not  ask  whether  the  parents  were  believers  or  not,  or  whether  they 
had,  or  were  about  to  have,  their  children  baptized  or  not.     The  disciples 
made   the  grave  mistake  that  infants  should  not  be  brought  to  Christ, 
because  only  grown  people  would  profit  by  Him;  but  Jesus  was  "MUCH  DIS- 
PLEASED," Mark  10:14. 


128  THE     ROAD 

takes  the  covenant  of  the  church.1    He  simply 
confesses  a  relation  already  existing.2 

3-    BLOOD  WILL  TELL. 

369.  One  who  considers  the  reforms  required 
for  the  good  of  mankind,  will  realize  how  much, 
need  there  is  of  emphasizing  more  the  laws  of 
nature  along  with  the  principles  of  ethics.   Jesus7 
life  was  a  simple,  natural  one;  and  our  lives,  like 
his,  must  regard  all  God's  laws,  whether  written 
in  the  Bible  or  in  our  own  being. 

370.  If  a  man  corrupts  his  mind,  and  hardens 
his   heart,   and  weakens   his   body,   by    impure 
thoughts  and  godless  behavior  and  bad  living,  the 
bad  effects  pass  over  to  his  offspring,  the  same  as 
the  color  of  the  eyes  or  hair,  and  other  physical 
and  mental  resemblances.3 

367.  *  The  highest  service  that  can  be  done  for  a  child  is  to  give  him 
that  training  which  will  lead  him  to  LOVE  WHAT  GOD  LOVES  AND  TO  HATE 
WHAT  GOD  HATES.     This  is  the  life  of  regeneration,  in  which  the  natural 
appear  but  as  the  semblance  of  graces  by  the  side  of  the  more  perfect  and 
ever-maturing  fruit  of  the  Spirit  of  God.     (Gal.  5:22,  23.)     The  temper  of 
childhood  is  trustful  and  believing,  and  it  is  comparatively  easy  then  to 
love  Christ.     God  has  stamped  upon  the  child  nature  that  which  guarantees 
its  loyalty  to  Him  if  it  has  half  a  chance. 

368.  2  A  mother  writes:     "If  my  children  said  to  me,  'Mamma,  do  you 
think  I  am  a  Chirstian?'  I  always  answered,  'Yes,  for  you  have  been  given 
to  God,  and  he  always  receives  our  gifts,  and  now  YOU  must  give  yourselves 
to  Him';   and  they  would  reply,  'Why,  mamma,  we  HAVE.'    Two  of  them 
never  knew  WHEN  they  became  Christians,  and  the  third  one,  although  we 
had  the  same  faith  for  him,  and  still  believe  he  was  a  child  of  God  from  his 
infancy,  yet  at  eight  years  of  age  he  had  a  very  clear,  distinct  experience. 
Two  of  our  boys  are  now  in  college,  and  one  preparing  for  college,  and  each 
of  them  is  self-consecrated  to  the  service  of  the  LORD." 

371.  3  If  one  had  exact  tables  showing  the  physical  and  moral  life  of 
his  ancestors,  and  would  add  to  that  the  doing  and  neglect  of  his  own 
former  life,  he  would  see  that  his  present  moral  and  physical  state  is  the 
product  of  causes.    This  is  as  true  as  that  a  stock-buyer  can  tell  the  qual- 
ities and  worth  of  an  animal  by  the  herd-book  and  the  care  it  has  had.   The 
law  has  modifications  and  variations.   Where  there  are  twins,  whether  they 


THE     ROAD  129 

372.  Nature's  laws  requiring  good  food,  pure 
air  and  comfortable  dress,  are   better  observed 
now  than  formerly.   The  results  have  been  favor- 
able to  the  average  length  of  life.     But  never 
were  the  worst  enemies  of  mankind,  appetite  and 
avarice  so  powerful  as  now;   and  never  were  we 
in  such  danger  by  them.1 

374.  The  same  law  that  makes  it  certain  that 
iniquities  shall  be  remembered  to  the  third  or 
fourth  generation,  makes  it  certain  also  that  chil- 
dren shall  be  blessed  by  the  full  measure  of  good 
that  impressed  the  lives  and  blood  of  their  pro- 
genitors. Blessed  are  those  among  the  youth  of 
our  country  who  put  themselves  into  harmony 
with  God  and  nature;  and  who  by  good  habits, 

be  the  offspring  of  animals  or  people,  there  may  be  differences  between 
them.  But  the  practical  stock-grower  knows  that  the  differences  have  a 
cause,  and  that  they  do  not  invalidate  the  law  that  "like  begets  like."  The 
millennium  never  will  come  to  this  land  while  the  people  are  in  such  bond- 
age to  the  narcotic  appetites.  Sabbath-school  teachers  may  pray  and  work, 
and  preachers  may  exhort  and  entreat;  but  still  there  will  be  on  the  part 
of  the  young  the  distressing  susceptibility  to  the  sins  that  ruin,  and  the 
amazing  outbreakings  of  depravity,  because  blood  will  tell. 

373.  ]  One-half  the  race  going  down  to  the  grave  in  infancy  through 
sickness  and  pain,  the  result  so  largely  of  hereditary  taints,  is  not  enough  to 
check  the  mad  appetites  of  parents  who  weep  over  the  little  graves,  or  to 
awaken  their  consciences  to  their  sins  by  violating  nature's  laws.     Those 
who  do  not  live  a  clean,  temperate  life  are  not  fit  to  become  parents. 
Children  like  Samuel,  Daniel  and  John  the  Baptist,  were  born  and  reborn  at 
the  same  time.     James  F.  Clarke  says  of  ancient  Egypt:     "Religion  pene- 
trated so  deeply  into  the  habits  of  the  land,  that  it  almost  made  a  part  of 
the  intellectual  and  physical  organization  of  its  inhabitants.     Habits  con- 
tinued during  many  generations  at  last  become  instincts,  and  are  trans- 
mitted with  the  blood." 

The  amount  computed  for  liquors  and  tobacco  for  1901,  in  the  United 
States,  is  ten  per  cent  of  the  entire  living  of  the  whole  population,  or  $23 
per  head.  The  expenditure  for  tea,  coffee  and  cocoa  was  $187,200,000. 
The  total  expenses  for  beverages  and  tobacco  is  a  little  over  $25  per  head, 
or  for  eighty  millions  of  people,  $2,000,000,000.  "Popular  Science 
Monthly,"  August,  1902. 


130  THE    EOAD 

pure  bodies,  clean  hearts,  right  minds  and  holy 
spirits,  steadfastly  live  the  lives  that  they  would 
give  to  their  descendants. 

4-     POINTS  MANIFESTED  BY  THIS  CHAPTER. 

375.  The  power  of  Jesus  over  human  minds, 
never  can  die  out;  because  he  lived  such  a  simple 
and  natural  life,  and  stands  in  such  close  rela- 
tions to  every  one  in  need  of  a  Friend. 

376.  Jesus  is  the  Friend  of  strong  men,  and 
commands  the  respect  of  the  most  gifted;  but  at 
the  same  time  he  is  equally  the  Friend  of  the 
most  needy  woman  or  the  poorest  little  child. 

377.  Reforms  in  order  to  be  successful  must 
have  reference  to  the  homes  of  the  people,  and 
minister  to  the  protection  of  men,  women  and 
children  alike. 

378.  All  the  families  of  the  world  are  helped 
by  Jesus'  coming,  especially  by  what  he  did  to 
make  changes  of  relief  and  happiness  for  women 
and  children. 

379.  Loyalty  to  Jesus  on  the  part  of  all  the 
members  of  a  home,  is  the  most  certain  way  of 
domestic  peace  and  happiness. 

380.  Obedience  to  Jesus  will  keep  us  in  har- 
mony with  the  laws  of  Nature,  and  spare  us  from 
suffering  on  account  of  violations  in  the  many 
ways  now  practiced  by  mankind.1 


1  For  a  fuller  treatment  of  the  points  in  this  chapter,  get  the  author's 
three  tracts:  "Jesus,  Woman's  Friend,"  "Children  in  the  Church,"  and 
"Heredity."  Package  of  10  for  10  cents,  or  100  for  75  cents.  Single 
copies  3  cents  each.  Address,  Woman's  Temperance  Publishing  Associa- 
tion, Chicago,  Illinois. 


IX 
THE  ROAD  TO   DESTRUCTION 

381.  "Wide  is  the  gate  and  broad  is  the  road,  that  leadeth  to  destruc- 
tion, and  many  there  be  that  enter  in  thereby." J 

382.  "Between  us  and  you  there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed,  that  they  which 
would  pass  from  hence  to  you  may  not  be  able,  and  that  none  may  cross 
over  from  thence  to  us."  2 

DIVIDED  ROADS 

383.  There  is  no  foundation  for  the  hope  of 
an  unworthy  man,  that  at  the  end  of  his  mean- 
ness on  earth  he  will  be  happy  in  the  next  exist- 
ence.     All  such  set  aside  the  invariable  laws  of 
the  natural  and  moral  governments  under  which 
we  live.3 

384.  Some  have  thought  that  hell  is  all  in  the 
other  world,  and  some  have  tried  to  laugh  away 
the  thought  of  hell  anywhere;  but  hell  is  in  both 
worlds  and  in   all  worlds,  wherever  there   are 
minds  out  of  harmony  with  holiness  and  God. 
Judgment  days  are  both  here  and  there.4 

1  Matt.  7:13.  2Luke  16:26. 

3  Gal.  6:7,  8;  Matt.  25:41.  See  Jean  Ingelow's  poem  "Divided,"  and 
Butler's  "Analogy"  with  "Barnes'  Essay,"  which  show  the  natural  outcome 
of  virtue  and  vice.  God's  sentence  of  the  wicked  accords  with  the  laws  of 
nature.  The  consequences  of  sin  and  the  punishment  of  sin  are  two  dif- 
ferent things,  which  go  together  where  sin  is  not  pardoned. 

4Mark  9:44,  46;  Rom.  2:2-11;  Matt.  10:42;  16:27.  There  is  very  much 
more  said  about  eternity  and  punishment  in  the  Gospel  than  in  the  Law, 
Maurice's  "Theological  Essays,"  p.  446.  See  also  "The  Philosophy  of 
a  Future  State,"  Dick's  Works,  Vol.  II,  part  iv.  Jesus'  work  is  to  redeem 
men  from  neglect,  selfishness,  willfulness  and  all  sins;  and  not  simply  from 
the  final  punishment  for  these  things.  Every  day  we  should  know  the  joy 
of  repentance  of  all  sin,  that  we  may  peacefully  rest  in  God's  forgiving 
love;  Rom.  3:26;  Titus  2:14;  Eph.  2:10. 


X 

IMMORTALITY  AND  RESURRECTION. 

385.  "Jesus  said  unto  her,  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life;  he  that 
believeth  on  me,  though  he  die,  yet  shall  he  live;   and  whosoever  liveth  and 
believeth  on  me  shall  never  die."  l 

386.  "There  shall  be  a  resurrection  both  of  the  just  and  the  unjust."  2 

387.  "For  we  know  that  if  the  earthly  house  of  our  tabernacle  be 
dissolved,   we   have  a  building  from  God,  a  house  not  made  with  hands, 
eternal,  in  the  heavens."  3 

I.     THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE. 

388.  Man  is  not  immortal  in  the  sense  that  he 
cannot  destroy  himself,  and  ultimately  be  wiped 
out  of  existence  by  God.   In  the  sense  of  necessary 
existence,  God  "only  hath  immortality."      If  a 
man  burns  himself  out  by  unbelief,  impenitency, 
and  iniquity,  it  is  not  impossible  that  his  spirit, 
like  the  last  flickering  of  a  burnt-out  candle,  may 
have  no  grace  or  life  to  support  it,  and  may  abso- 
lutely perish;    because  God  "is  able  to  destroy 
both  soul  and  body."  5 

389.  I  do  not  say  that  he  will  be  wiped  out  if 
his  existence  is  of  no  account,  but  I  do  say  that 
he  can  be  wiped  out  if  God  so  wills,  as  any  natural 
endowments  related  to  the  life  of  his  soul  are 
wiped   out.6    Jesus   said  "whosoever  liveth  and 
believeth  on  me,"  that  is,  one  living  who  takes 
care  to  trust  in  God,  "shall  never  die."    Man  is 
immortal  in  the  sense  that,  unhindered,  he  has  a 
natural  continued  existence  which  physical  death 

1  Jno.  11:  25,  26.  2  Acts  24: 15.  3  2  Cor.  5: 1. 

4  1  Tim.  6: 16.  5  Matt.  10:  28.  6  Matt.  25:  28. 


THE     ROAD  133 

in  itself  has  no  power  to  destroy.    God  made  man 
to  live.1 

391.  It  has  been  claimed  that  physical  science 
is  against  man's  immortality,  and  educated  people 
have  been  too  free  to  grant  the  claim.   Dr.  Draper 
says,  "It  is  to  be  regretted  that  those  who  should 
have  known  better,  have  conceded  the  argument 
that  from  no  considerations  based  upon  the  anat- 
omical or  structural  arrangements,  could  proof 
be   obtained  of  the  existence  of  an  immaterial 
principle."      The  claim  that  the  mind  the  same 
as  the  body  is  material,  carries  with  it  too  much, 
and  involves  absurdity.     If  that  were  so,  there 
would  be  no  such  thing  as  freedom  of  thinking 
and   choosing.      The   physical    arrangement    of 
one's  brain  matter  would  determine  everything; 
and  to  change  one's  opinions  there  would  need 
to   be   a  surgical  operation.     There  is  such  an 
independence   of  the  body  in  the  action  of  the 
mind  at  times,  that  they  appear  to  be  as  distinct 
and  separate  as  the  telegraph  operator  and  his 
instrument.     When,  in  this  case,  the  wires  and 
the  battery  finally  wear  out,  it  does  not  involve 
the  annihilation  of  the  operator. 

392.  The  marvelous  progress  made  in  scientific 
knowledge,  has  made  it  plain  that  the  grosser 
forms  of  matter  are  pervaded  by  a  more  refined 
material  which  has  laws  of  its  own.    This  is  seen 

390.  l  "On  purely  natural  principles  the  soul  that  is  left  to  itself 
unwatched,  uncultivated,  unredeemed,  must  fall  away  into  death  by  its  own 
nature.  'The  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die/  Ezek.  18:4.  It  shall  die,  not 
necessarily  because  God  passes  sentence  of  d  eath  upon  it,  but  because  it 
cannot  help  dying."  See  "Degeneration",  in  Drummond's  "Natural  Law  in 
the  Spiritual  World." 

2  Human  Physiology,  p.  283. 


134  THE     ROAD 

in  the  phenomena  relating  to  gravitation  and 
electricity.  Inside  the  world  of  crude  matter 
there  is  a  world  of  refined  matter;  and  now,  by 
the  Roentgen  X-rays,  by  which  objects  can  be 
photographed  through  opaque  substances  or 
inside  our  bodies,  it  appears  that  the  physical 
world  is  not  much  more  than  an  outside  covering 
of  the  invisible.  Science  keeps  pushing  back 
beyond  the  crude  outside  world;  and  what  we 
know  now  gives  encouragement  to  the  thought 
that,  behind  and  beneath  our  physical  organs  and 
bodies,  there  is  a  spiritual  body  which  death  may 
not  touch. 

393.  St.  Paul  seems  to  have  had  in  mind  this 
double   existence   when  he  said,  in  the  present 
tense,  "There  is  a  natural  body  and  there  is  a 
Spiritual  body."  l    According  to  this,  what  takes 
place  when  we  die  is  merely  the  dissolution  of 
the  outward.     Paul  again  spoke  in  the  present 
tense  when  he  said,  "We  know  that  if  our  earthly 
house  of  this  tabernacle  be  dissolved,  we  have  a 
building."  2 

394.  From   the   time  of  Dr.  Draper  onward, 
enquiring  physiologists  have  been  looking  back 
of  the  cerebral  organism  to  the  agent  which  sets 
it  in  motion,3  and  it  is  no  longer  claimed  that 
there  is  not  a  soul  or  that  the  soul  cannot  be 
immortal. 

2.     THE  TEACHING  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 

395.  What  we   mean    by    science    is,    truth 
derived  from  experience;  and  by  philosophy  we 
mean,  truth  derived  from  reason.     Philosophy  in 

xl  Cor.  15:44.  2  2  Cor.  5:1. 

3 Draper's  "Human  Physiology,"  p.  165,  515. 


THE     ROAD  135 

all  lands  generally  has  favored  the  immortality 
of  man.  The  arguments  merely  stated,  are  about 
are  follows: 

396.  (a)    There  is  a  primitive   belief  among 
men,  that  the  thinking  principle  is  different  from 
the  body;  and  it  is  so  different  from  the  body 
that  it  may  live  after  the  body  is  dissolved. 

397.  (b)  It  is  a  matter  of  universal  knowledge 
that  the  corruptible  man  is  not  the  seat  of  our 
personal  identity.     The  body  of  an  old  man  has 
made  many  changes  during  his  life  time,  but  he 
knows  himself  to  be  the  same  person  from  his 
earliest  recollections. 

398.  (c)  There  is  an  economy  in  nature  which 
requires  that  nothing  be  lost.     The  elements  of 
the  body  are  dissolved  but  they  are  not  wasted. 
As  the  mind  is  more  valuable  than  the  body,  if 
there  is  no  existence  beyond  this  life  it  would 
seem  to  be  a  great  waste  when  those  of  unusual 
gifts  die,  and  especially  when  they  die  in  youth. 

399.  (d)    The  human  instinct  for  life  and  the 
religious  instincts  persistently  assert  themselves 
in  the  nature  of  man.     "That  religious  instincts 
are  as  truly  a  part  of  our  nature  as  are  our  appe- 
tites and  our  nerves,  is  a  fact  which  all  history 
establishes,  and  which  forms  one  of  the  strongest 
proofs   of  the  reality   of  that  unseen  world  to 
which   the   soul    of    man    continually    tends." 
Where  there   are   instincts,   nature  has  always 
provided  something  to  meet  them.     Every  appe- 
tite and  faculty  in  every  creature  is  provided  for 
by  nature.     So  must  man's  moral  anticipations, 

1  Lecky's  "History  of  European  Morals,"  Vol.  1,  p.  340. 


136  THE     ROAD 

his  spiritual  instincts,  and  his  irrepressible  aspira- 
tions be  provided  for. 

400.  (e)    Perfection  is  an  end  in  everything; 
and  we  are  not  perfect,  and  the  system  of  which 
we  are  a  part  is  not  perfect  if  there  is  not  life 
beyond.     This  world  is  not  a  place  of  entertain- 
ment but  of  discipline,  and  what  is  the  discipline 
which  continues  to  its  very  end  for,  if  there  is  no 
future  life? 

401.  (f)  God  is  good;  but  the  proof  is  lacking, 
if  his  infinite  power  and  wisdom  has  no  better 
adjustments  than  such  as  are  seen  in  the  very 
short  existence  of  each  generation  in  this  world. 
For  example,   to   make   things   equal  and  just, 
somewhere    Lazarus    and    Dives    must    change 
places.1 

402.  (g)   The  voice  of  history  bears  clear  testi- 
mony to  immortality.     It  is  born  into  the  life- 
thought  of  the  race.     Mankind  leave  this  world 
with  some  kind  of  expectation  of  continued  life. 
"Mankind  have  never  acquiesced  for  any  consid- 
erable time  in  the  neglect  of  the  great  problem 
of  the  origin,  nature  and  destiny  of  the  soul,  or 
dispensed  with  some  form  of  religious  worship/75 

403.  (h)  Agnosticism  practically  concedes  this 
point  to  religion.     Robert  Ingersoll  did  so  in  his 
address  at  his  brother's  grave;  and  even  a  greater 
agnostic,   Matthew   Arnold,   said   to   a   Chicago 
reporter,  in  December,  1891:     "I'll  give  you  one 
point  of  my  religion;  I  believe  in  soul  immortal- 
ity.    I  am  an  agnostic  only  in  the  true  meaning 
of  the  word.     I  do  not  know  what  comes  after 

1  Luke  16:25. 

2  Lecky>s  "History  of  European  Morals,"  Vol.  1,  p.  339. 


THE     ROAD  137 

death,  any  more  than  an  unborn  child  knows 
about  the  quotations  of  corn  on  the  board  of 
trade,  but  I  believe  there  is  a  post  mortem  exist- 
ence, even  if  I  cannot  speak  from  actual  knowl- 
edge of  it.  Now  I  am  not  a  visionary  man.  I 
am  a  chemist,  a  specialist,  an  anatomist;  and  I 
declare  that  the  studies  of  materialism  through 
these  means  of  research  have  only  strengthened 
my  belief  in  soul  immortality.  Go  as  far  as  you 
will  in  scientific  delving,  invariably  you  come  to 
a  point  where  you  must  stop,  the  point  where 
materialism  ends  and  where  the  impalpable, 
blind  grasp  in  futurity  is  attempted.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  comprehend  soul  truth  through  material- 
istic agencies.  It  requires  the  exercise  of  soul 
functions,  and  then  one  believes.  The  very  failure 
of  materialism  to  satisfy  proves  that  there  is 
something  beyond  it — soul  immortality." 

3.     BIBLE  TEACHING. 

404.  (a)    The  Bible  treats  this  subject  in  the 
same  majestic,  matter-of-fact  way  that  it  does 
the   existence   of  God.     It  is   not  argued,   but 
expressed  as  a  matter  of  course. 

405.  (b)    Where  persons  are  spoken  of  after 
their  death,  the  impression  is  given  of  their  con- 
scious existence.     Jesus  speaks  thus:     "But  as 
touching  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  have  ye 
not  read  that  which  was  spoken  unto  you  by  God, 
saying,  I  am  the  God  of  Abraham,  and  the  God 
of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob,  God  is  not  the 
God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living."  l 

406.  (c)    Death  in  the  Bible  has  the  meaning 
of  change,  like  to  that  of  a  grain  of  wheat  planted 

1  Matt.  22:  31,  32. 


138  THE    ROAD 

in  the  earth.  There  is  a  dissolution,  but  no 
destruction  of  the  life  principle;  and  it  is  followed 
by  a  more  abundant  life.1 

407.  (d)    The  word  "soul"  in  the  Bible  often 
does  not  carry  the  meaning  of  immortality;   but 
when  the  term  is  used  for  the  real  man,  including 
his  spirit,  it  is  a  mistake  to  give  it  the  lower 
mortal  meaning.     The  context  must  decide  the 
matter.2 

408.  (e)     The  new  life  and   new  love   of  a 
redeemed  soul,  by  trust  in  the  Saviour,  is  not  a 
thing  of  death;   and  a  soul  born   of  the   Spirit 
never  shall  die.3    It  has  a  resurrection  immedi- 
ately at  death. 

409.  (f)  The  common,  honest  and  unquestion- 
ing reader  of  the  Bible  receives  his  impression  of 
the  truth  of  immortality,  and  lives  by  it,  and 

glories  in  it  as  the  time  of  his  death  approaches, 
e  knows  that  Jesus  has  absolutely  "abolished 
death,  and  hath  brought  life  and  immortality  to 
light  through  the  Gospel."  4 

410.  (g)   The  reason  why  the  word  immortal- 
ity is  not  generally  used  in  the  New  Testament, 
is  because  it  was  rendered  unfit  by  the  indefinite, 
etherial,  unreal  meanings  which  it  had  come  to 
have  among  the  Greek  and  Roman  poets  and  the 
Rabbinical  rhetoricians.   There  was  no  word  but 
resurrection  which  carried  in  it  the  meaning  of 
the  Apostle's  teaching  of  immortality  after  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus.     It  was  also  Jesus'  word 

1 1  Cor.  15:36-38.     "Dissolved"  is  the  word  that  Paul  uses  for  death,  2 
Cor.  5:1. 

2  Gen.  1:30;  Matt.  10:28;  1  Thess.  5:23. 

3  Jno.  3:16,  36;  11:26;  1  John  4:16. 

4  2  Tim.  1:10;  Phil.  1:23;  2  Tim.  4:7. 


THE     ROAD  139 

for  immortality.1    Resurrection  is  as  much  a  New 
Testament  word  as  agapee  or  Road. 

412.  The  immortality  of  the  New  Testament, 
expressed  by  the  term  resurrection,  is  a  truth  of 
immense  meaning   and   comfort.2      We   do   not 
simply  exist  when  we  pass  into  the  future  life, 
but  we  exist  ivith  real  bodies  adapted  to  that  heavenly 
world.     The  Scriptures  speak  of  the  opening  of 
the  graves,  and  the  sound  of  the  trumpet,  etc.  This 
figurative  language  was  taken,  for  the  most  part, 
from  the  manner  of  assembling  the  congregation 
in  the  wilderness.   God  may  send  forth  his  angels 
for  such  a  grand  rally  at  any  time;   and  besides 

411.     1  Compare  Matt.  22:31,  32,  where  Jesus  uses  the  word  resurrec- 
tion in  order  to  speak  of  immortality;  Jno.  11:25;   Acts  17:18. 

413.  21  Cor.  15:37-44.     There  are  special  promises  relating  to  the 
immortality  or  resurrection  of  the   righteous:     (a)   The  wicked  have  no 
promise  of  the  "glorious  body"  of  the  righteous,  Phil.  3:21;   (b)  The  right- 
eous shall  be  "with  the  LORD,"  1  Thess.  4:13-17;   (c)  The  wicked  will  have 
no  part  in  this  general  resurrection;  that  is,  the  resurrection  of  the  just 
and  the  unjust  WILL  NOT  OCCUR  AT  THE  SAME  TIME.    What  is  known  as 
"the  general  resurrection,"  is  the  grand  rally  of  the  redeemed  of  the  LORD 
out  of  all  nations  to  celebrate  their  victory  and  crown  their  Redeemer  in 
the  presence  of  the  rejoicing  angels  of  heaven.     When  we  have  had  this 
grand  rally,  doubtless  we  will  vote  the  time  for  another  celebration  of  LIFE 
FROM  THE  DEAD,  and  so  keep  on  rejoicing.     There  is  no  intimation  in  the 
Bible  that  the  bad  will  be  present  AT  THIS  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  GOOD. 
See  "The  Two  Resurrections,"  in  Brookes'  "Maranatha,"  p.  446-491;  Luke 
14:14;    1  Cor.  15:20-26;  Rev.  20:6.     This  "glorious  resurrection,"  from 
out  of  the  rest  of  the  dead  and  peculiar  to  the  Road  walkers,  leads  Paul 
to  say  of  himself  with  reference  to  it:     "That  I  may  know  him,  and  the 
power  of  his  resurrection,  and  the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings,  becoming 
conformed  unto  his  death;  if  by  any  means  I  may  attain  unto  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  dead,"  Phil.  3:10,  11.     The  Greek  word  for  "resurrection"  used 
in  this  text  by  Paul,  stands  alone  in  the  New  Testament.     Literally  it 
signifies  the  "out  resurrection;"  that  is,  resurrection  from  out  the  dead, 
or  the  "first  resurrection,"  or  the   "resurrection   of  the  just,"   or  the 
resurrection  without  that  of  the  wicked,  Phil.  3:11.      If  by  an  impenitent 
and  godless  life  any  reader  has  NO  PART  IN  THIS  GRAND  RALLY,  IT  WILL 

BE   AN    IMMEASURABLE  LOSS.      I  BEG  OF  YOU    TO    STOP   AND   THINK   WHAT  IT 

MEANS.  See  Matt.  16:26;  Daniel  12:2,[3;  Luke  14:14;  1  Cor.  15:23,37,43,44. 


140  THE     ROAD 

these  general  resurrections,  individuals  rise  up  at 
the  time  of  their  departure  from  this  world.  Our 
present  material  bodies  should  not  be  associated 
with  these  resurrections  "of  the  dead/'  for  the 
"resurrection  of  the  body"  is  not  a  New  Testa- 
ment phrase.1  The  body  that  the  resurrection 
has  to  do  with,  is  the  spiritual  body ;  and  the 
meaning  of  resurrection  is,  a  manifestation  of  life 
from  the  dead,  of  which  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
is  the  ideal  and  the  guarantee.  "Thou  sowest 
not  the  body  that  shall  be.  *  *  *  If  there  is 
a  natural  body,  there  is  also  a  spiritual  body." 

414.  One  shudders  at  the  thought  of  an  airy, 
fanciful  immortality,  with  the  spirit  turned  out 
of  doors.     The  desire  is  not  to  "be  unclothed  but 
clothed   upon;"  and   God   has   provided  that  in 
every  world  to  which  the  spirit  goes,  as  it  makes 
the  passage  it  shall  be  provided  with  a  suitable 
body,  "for  we  know  that  if  the  earthly  house  of 
our  tabernacle  be  dissolved,  we  have  a  building 
from  God,77  3 

416.  The  preaching  of  the  Resurrection  by  the 
Apostles  was  a  natural  and  real  presentation  of 
the  future  life;  and  it  became  in  the  early  churches 
a  present,  living,  and  powerful  faith. 

JSee  Hanna's  "Resurrection  of  the  Dead,"  p.  118-149;   Abbott's  "Life 
and  Letters  of  Paul,"  p.  162. 
2 1  Cor.  15:44. 

415.  3See  2  Cor.  5:1-8;  "Bibliotheca  Sacra,"  October,  1869.   "Both 
among  the  later  Jews  and  earlier  Christian  writers,  there  is  no  distinction 
made  between  immortality  and  the  resurrection;   both  are  considered  as 
the  same  thing,"  Lee's  "Eschatology,"  p.  156.     "Whatever  may  have  hap- 
pened at  Jesus'  grave,  and  in  the  matter  of  appearances,  one  thing  is 
certain,  this  grave  was  the  birthplace  of  the  indestructible  belief  that 
death   is   vanquished   and   there   is   a  life  eternal,"   Harnack's  "What  is 
Christianity?"  p.  175;   "Hath  ABOLISHED  DEATH,  and  hath  brought  life  and 
immortality  to  light,"  2  Tim.  1:10;  Jno.  11:26. 


1.  Jesus'  religion  is  not  a  cultus  but  a  relation 
of  life,  its  ingredients  are  things  of  life,  and  His 
church  is  not  an  institution  but  simply  a  Brother- 
hood. The  creed  system  and  existing  churches  are 
absolutely  different  things   from   any  that  the 
Prophets,  Jesus,  or  the  Apostles  started. 

2.  The  conduct  of  Christian  civilization  toward 
the  weaker  races,  and  their  Providential  religions, 
is  not  like  that  of  Jesus.   He  made  of  all  Brethren. 

3.  No  man  can  be  true  to  Jesus  without  being 
absolutely  loyal  to  worship  and  to  "doing  good." 

4.  God's  religion   forever  must  stand  while 
there  is  a  Lord's  Prayer,  a  New  Commandment, 
a  Bible,  the  light  of  God's  Spirit,  and  the  Life  of 
Jesus  who  said:     "I  am  the  light  of  the  ivorld." 

5.  It  is  an  earnest  thing  to  live;  and  the  Road 
is  to  help  this  world,  its  affairs  and  its  people. 
Jesus  makes  lives  which  stand  apart  from  the 
idolatry  of  things,  but  whose  works  will  bear  the 
light  and  tests  of  resurrection  day. 

6.  The  world  everywhere  needs  men ;  God-fear- 
ing, wrong-hating  men;  men  who  foremost  of  all, 
and  at  any  cost  to  selfish  aims  and  gains,  will  do 
their  duty.    Men  are  wanted,  who  are  not  the  shal- 
low-principled,  self-seeking,   self-gratifying   up- 
starts of  insidious  beliefs;  men  who  believe  in  the 
Law,  the  Psalms,  the  Prophets,  and  the  Gospel,  and 
who  believe  the  Bible  because  they  read  it  and 
practice  it;  men  who  with  a  sense  of  responsibil- 
ity yield  themselves  to  God,  and  who  say  with  a 
Prophet's  rectitude  and  courage,  "The  Lord  God 
will  help  me,  therefore  shall  I  not  be  confounded, 
therefore  have  I  set  my  face  like  a  flint,  and  I 
know  that  I  shall  not  be  ashamed." 


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INDEX 


The  figures  refer  to  the  paragraphs,  and  not  to  the  pages 


Abolishment  of  death,  409,  415. 

Abstract  religion,  104,  in. 

"A  Christ,"  59,  65. 

Agapee,  or  love,  247,  248. 

Agnosticism  and  immortality,  403. 

Aim  of  the  Gospel,  71,  130,  265. 

Angels'  civilization,  19,71. 

Anger  of  God,  219. 

Animal  sacrifices,  131,  138,  323. 

Animal  passion,  180,  182,  361,  362,  364. 

Apologies  by  Jesus,  35,  130. 

Apostolic  Fathers,  59,  62,  64,  76. 

Apostles  of  Jesus,  40,  195,  237,  340. 

Appetite  and  avarice,  206,  371,  373. 

Atonement  by  Jesus,  136,  137,  199,  252. 

Attendance  at  church,  44,  184,  345, 347. 

Backsliding,  232,  251. 

Badge  of  Brethren,  82,  246,  324. 

Baptism,  272,  276,  277,  281,  286,  299. 

Baptism  of  children,  311,  357. 

Baptism  with  the  Spirit,  287,  294,  303. 

"Being  a  Christ,"  59,  65. 

Belief  in  Christ  and  God,  240,  257. 

Belief  a  process,  58,  181,  234,  253,  257. 

Beneficence,  84. 

Bible  the  treasure  of  Christendom,  81, 

85,  214,  235. 
Bible  and  theology,  169,  179,  181,  183, 

235.  242>  260. 

Biography  in  the  Bible,  179. 
Birth-right  church  members,  349,  350, 

Blessedness  of  religion,  252,253. 
Body  to  be  kept  under,  182,  260,  362. 
Body  and  the  resurrection,  393,  412. 
Boer  war,  218. 

Book,  why  this  one  written,  i,  129. 
Bounds  of  habitation  for  nations,  174. 
Boys  helped  by  kindness,  361,  373,  374. 
Brahmo  Somaj  movement,  82,  ;oi. 
Brethren  the  name  of  disciples,  164. 
Brotherhood  church,  48,  82,  85,  166, 

255.  266,  324. 
Brotherhood  of  men,  196,  197,  221,  236, 

241. 

Buddhism  and  its  appeal,  197,  221,  227. 
Certainty  in  religion,  29,  33,  35,  253. 
Character,  58,  144,  201,  258,  260. 
Children  saved.  348,  353,  356,  366. 
Children  in  the  church,  184,  346,  349, 


350,  365- 
China,  189,  190, 196, 


213,  221. 


Christ  central  in  religion,  35,  242,  251, 

257- 

Christian  a  heathen  name,  52,  53. 
Christian  in  New  Testament,  53,  57. 
Christianity  better  than  heathenism, 

41,  81,  85,  169,  171,  324. 
Christianity  an  apostacy  from  Jesus, 

67,  167,  170,  177,  242. 
Church   a  Brotherhood,  67,    127,  166, 

237,  255,  324- 

Church  with  Roman,  Greek  and  Jew- 
ish elements,  169,  172,  185. 
Church  in  a  crisis  now,  43,  48, 164, 166. 
Church  of  the  future,  164,  165,  167,  233, 

237,  324,  358. 
Church  attendance  and  support,  44, 

45,  84,  345,  347. 

Church  and  children,  353,  355,  356,  365. 
Churches  like  public  schools,  84,  164, 

1 66,  237. 

Cities  and  the  liquor  traffic,  206. 
Civilization  provided  for  by  Jesus,  66, 

71,  333,  344. 

Civilization  and  Rome,  68,  167, 172, 173. 
"Civilizing"  the  weaker  races,  205,208. 
Civil  War  in  the  United  States,  215, 

216,  217. 

Clergy,  27,  105,  171,  237. 
Commandment,  the  "new,"  82,   246, 

247. 
Commandments  obeyed  by  doing,  58, 

84. 

Commercialism,  167,  174. 
Commission  of  the  Apostles,  82,  281, 

3<>3' 
Conversion  of  children,  347,  365,  367, 

368. 

Covetousness,  206. 
Creed  is  Jesus  himself,  256,  257. 
Creeds  and  the  Bible,  67,  235,  242,  257, 

260. 

Cruelty,  145,  168,  250. 
Cult  and  cultus,  47,  48,  54,  56,  125,  126. 
Daily  meals  and  the  I^ord's  Supper, 

Daily  prayer,  n,  133,  135,  136. 

Death  abolished,  415. 

Declaration  of  Independence,  219,  255. 

Dependence  on  God  daily,  133,  253. 

Divorces,  69,  335. 

Doctrine,  123,  169,  179,  242,  260. 

Doubts,  181,  252. 


Duties  never  to  be  neglected,  58,  254, 

261. 

Earnest  people,  27,  28,  36,  39,  258. 
Education,  169,  170,  173. 
Emotional  religion,  33,  46. 
Essence  of  religion,  201,252. 
Ethics  of  religion,  146,  258,  259. 
Evangelists,  28,  33,  46,  346. 
Ever-existent  religion,  198,  202. 
Evils  prevalent  in  Christian  lands, 

68,  69,  183,  373. 

Existence  an  earnest  matter,  30,  31, 32. 
Experience  of  religion,  47, 106, 179,  200. 
Expiatory  meaning  of  sacrifices,  135, 

137,  320. 

Faith,  232,  236,  239,  244. 
Family  religion,  143,  322,  327,  334,  355, 

360. 

Teasts  of  the  Jews,  138,  323. 
Flesh  or  spirit,  180,  362. 
Food  and  religion,  131,  132,  138,  323. 
Force  and  power  in  religion,  173,  244, 

262. 

Forgiveness  of  sins,  136,  199,  200,  383. 
Fraternal  societies,  44,48,  233,  241,  246. 
God  and  man  must  come  together,  32, 

34,  195. 

Golden  rule,  174,  249,  332. 

Good  Samaritan  an  example,  58,  112. 

Good  works  of  religion,  258,  261,  333. 

Gospel  defined,  239,  260,  267. 

Gospel  preaching,  37,  44,  81,  214,  258, 
267. 

Happiness  in  religion,  133,  253. 

Heathen  religions,  193,  194,  199,  201, 
220,  250. 

Heathen  piety,  193,  195,  221,  342. 

Heathen  invented  the  name  Chris- 
tian, 53,  55,  56. 

Heaven  a  home,  102,  412. 

Hell  here  and  hereafter,  384. 

Heredity,  369,  371,  373. 

Heresy,  232,  251. 

Highway  as  a  name,  23,  24,  198. 

Holiness,  58,  129,  153,  253,  274. 

Holy  Spirit,  119,  287,  304. 

Home,  143,  331,  332,  334,  344,  345. 

Hope,  383,  414. 

Humility,  112,  114,  188,  258. 

Hygienic  living,  364,  373,  374. 

Immoralities  in  the  United  States, 
206,  373. 

Immortality,  388,  389,  395. 

Impartiality  of  God's  gifts,  194,  256 

Immunities  of  missionaries,  214,  220, 
221 

Independence,  civil  and  religious,  219, 

Indians,  207 

Indifference  to  religion,  36,  43,  45 

Ingredients  of  religion,  233,  250,  265, 

267 
Intemperance  250,  371,  372,  373 


INDEX  143 

Institutional  religion,  46,  173,  236,  255, 

3i7 
Jesus  the  creed  of  his  own  church,  130, 

137,  199,  257 

Jesus  life  revealed  religion,  35,  41,  71, 
Jesuit  a  beautiful  name,  65 

256,  258,  331 
Jewish  elements  in  Christianity,  55, 

131,  169,  323 

John  the  Baptist,  28,  273,  276,  290 
Judgments  and  justice  oi  God,  216, 

219.  399 ,384;  4 10 
Kingdom  of  God  and  heavens,  47, 167. 

231 

laboring  men,  38,  42,  43,  45,  46 
Land  ownership.  143,  144,  174,  175,  176 
Law  of  Moses,  131,  139,  145,  162,249 
Laws  and  legislation  from  Rome,  173 
Life,  30,  41,  103,  388 
Liquor  traffic,  172,  205,  206,  209,  373 
Lord's  Supper,  132,  318,  322 
Lord's  prayer,  12-19 
Love,  131,  240,  244,  246,  249,  251 
Love  defined  in  New  Testament,  247 
Love  analyzed  by  Paul,  I  Cor.,  13  240, 

244.  245.  247,  248 

Love  feasts  in  early  church,  249,  322 
Lust  of  the  flesh,  362,  364 
Man  and  God  must  come  together,  32, 

219 
Manna  taught  daily  dependence,  133, 

253 

Marriage  purified,  honored,  337,  344 
Memories  of  roads,  96,  101,  102 
Mexican  war,  215,  216 
Militarism,  174,  210,  211,  212 
Missionary  system,  81,  214,  220,  221 
Monopolies  and  religion,  99,  100,  144 
Morals  and  religion,   145,  171,  201,  206, 

258,  259 

Mothers  helped  by  Jesus    335,  338,  368 
New  commandment,  82,  246,  247,  249 
New  life  described,  298,  299.  300 
Nicodemus and  baptism,  302 
Nomadic  life  of  early  mankind,  23 
Obedience,  41,  58 
Object  lessons,  124,  133,  256 
Old  Testament,  85,  153,  249 
Opinions  divide,  67,  236 
Ordinances,  238,  242,  272,  317,  325 
Ownership  of  land,  143,  175 
Pagan  religions,  50,  51,  52,  250 
Parks  of  the  people,  97 
Paul's  understanding  of  Jesus,  41, 169, 

250 

Paul's  religion,  3,  89,  106,  245,  259 
Person  of  Christ,  47,  240,  250,  257 
Philippine  war,  212,  215.  2[8,  219 
Philosophy,  51,  126,  169  171,  174,  395 
Physical  science  and  immortality,  391 
Piety  supplanted  by  church  devotion, 

67,  236 
Poor,  84,  99,  100,  141,  143 


144  INDEX 


Power  of  religion,  245,  250 
Prayer  the  blessing  of  life  11-19 
Prayer  the  meaning  of  sacrifices,  131, 

135,  136 

Preaching,  35,  124,  130,  137,  184,  214 
Prince  of  peace  dethroned,  210 
Process  of  belief  and  peace,  253,  257 
Prodigals,  347,  361 
Progress,  41,  66,  171,  250,  331 
Prophets  teaching,   147,  149,  150,  152, 

232,  249,  276 

Property  in  common  at  Pentecost,  49 
Protestantism  and  dogmas,  170,  178 
Providential  religions,    194,   201,   250, 

264,  221 

Psalms  of  harsh  meanings,  145 
Public  schools  and  the  church,  164,  237 
Public  roads  fixed  by  law,  24 
Punishment  and  wrath  of  God,  219,  383 
Purification  the  end  of  Hebrew  rites, 

129,  274 
Questions  of  interest  in  religion,  48, 

163 

Rabble  aided  by  earnest,  28,  33,  36,  46 
Reaping  and  sowing,  383 
Reform  work  of  Jesus,  256,  258,  331 
Reform  and  the  Gospel,  66,  187,  245,  258 
Reformation  now  and  by  Luther,  178, 

187 
Regeneration,   242,   243,   267,   288,  289, 

364,  367 

Rejection  of  men,  28,  3^,  258,  337 
Reliance  on  God  daily,  29,  133,  253 
Religion,   32,  47,  71,  232,  238,  239,  252, 

254,  260,  267,  341 
Religion  as  the  Road,  3,  88,  101    107, 

126,  127 

Repentance,  146,  263,  276 
Resurrection  and  immortality,  388 
Rights  of  mankind,  66,  212,  218,  219,  336 
Righteousness,  149,  150  153, 181,  258,261 
Road  as  a  name,  9,  10,  23,  24,  88,  96,  125, 

126,  127,  130 

Road  religion,  25,  101,  107,  197 
Roman  influence  on  world,  67,  169, 173 
Roentgen  X-rays  describe  preaching, 

123,  392 

Sabbath  observance,  139,  140 
Sabbatical  system  of  Moses'  laws,  14 
Sacramentarianism,  146,  296 
Sacrifices  133,  134,  135,  136, 138,  149,  150 
Sacrifices  disappear  at  Jesus'  death, 

135.  1.37 

Sandwich  Islands,  208,  209 
Salvation  of  heathen,  194,  199 
Salvation  from  sin,  182,  408 
Samaritan  woman  and  Jesus,  255,  341 
Samaritan  man  an  example,  58,  112 
Sanctification,  245,  253 
Science  the  same  everywhere 


School  management    and    churches, 

164,  237 

Science  and  immortality,  422,  423 
Sectarianism,  i,  26,  67,  89,  257 
Sectarianism  and  brotherhood,  47,  84, 

324 

Sectarian  waste,  163,  164 
Secret  of  a  happy  life,  253 
Secret  societies,  44,  48,  233,  241,  246 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  258,  260,  267 
Simplicity  of  Jesus'  message,  130,  251, 

267 

Sin  ,67,  260 

Social  life  of  Hebrews,  138, 323,  337, 339 
Societies  and  the  church,  44,  46,48,  71, 

233.  246 

Sociological  features  Moses'  Law,  139 
Spirit  and  flesh,  180,  182,  364 
Spirituality  of  the  Bible  message,  129, 

255.  273,  180 

Spirituality  of  worship,  255,  282 
Spirit's  presence  everywhere,  196, 197, 

290 

Substance  of  religion,  201,  252,  255 
Struggles  of  life,  180,  182,  258 
Sunday  schools  and  Gen.  Grant,  235 
"Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles," 

64,  312 

Tenantry  in  Ireland  and  England,  176 
Theology,  169,  179,  183,  235,  242,  260 
Theology  and  Protestantism,  170,  178, 

181,  237 

Thought  to  be  pure,  182,  337,  364 
Trust  in  God  a  daily  habit,  133,  253 
Truth  the  same  in  all  lands,  203 
Union  of  churches,  163,  165,  166 
Union  of  Brethren,  82,  83,  163,  165,  166 
Union  about  Jesus,  241,  257,  313 
Universalism  of  Jesus,  15,  23,  130,  195, 

198,  255 
Universality    of    religious    life    and 

truth,  194,  201,  202,  204 
Vengeance  of  God,  216,  219 
Walking  in  the  Road,  109,  110 
War,  68,  210,  212,  214,  216,  250 
War  and  the  Bible,  147,  219 
War  against  Filipinos  and  Chinese, 

213,  218,  221  - 
War  against  Mexico,  216 
Weak  destroyed  by  appetite,  206 
Whisky    an    instrument   of  destruc- 
tion, 205,  207,  373 
Women  helped  by  Jesus,  334 
Word  made  flesh  to  reveal  religion, 256 
Work  to  save  others,  28,  33,  247 
Worship,  251,  254,  255 
Wrath  of  God,  216,  219 
Young  pointed  to  a  happy  life,  235, 

253,  369,  374 


"We  seem  to  be  on  the  eve  of  a  new  estimate  of  religion  proper  and 
of  its  history." — Professor  Harnack. 


"In  spite  of  the  many  discouraging  outlooks,  we  are  certainly  moving 
towards  a  better  state  and  a  higher  life  for  the  poor  and  common 
people." — Robert  Meredith. 


"Write  me  as  one  that  loves  his  fellow-men." 
The  angel  wrote  and  vanished.    The  next  night 
He  came  again  with  a  great  wakening  light, 
And  showed  their  names  whom  love  of  God  had  blest. 
And,  lo!  Ben  Adhem's  name  led  all  the  rest. — Hunt. 


Through  storm  and  sun.  the  age  draws  on 

When  heaven  and  earth  shall  meet, 
For  the  LORD  has  said  that  glorious 

He  will  make  the  place  of  His  feet, 
Dark  are  the  vales,  but  the  mountains  glow 

As  the  light  its  splendor  flings, 
And  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  comes  up 

With  healing  in  His  wings. 

Shine  on,  shine  on,  0  blessed  Sun, 

Through  all  the  round  of  heaven, 
Till  the  darkest  vale  and  the  farthest  isle 

Full  to  Thy  light  are  given— 
Till  the  wrongs  that  hurt  and  the  wrongs  that  kill 

Shall  be  done  away  forever, 
And  the  LOVE  OP  THE  LORD  shall  fill  the  earth, 

And  BRETHREN  SHALL  STAND  TOGETHER. — Nicoll,  adapted 


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